www.projectpen.com
© Copyright Project Pen 2015
Generations is a character driven epic set over one-hundred years in the Middle East. !
Human stories and micro-narratives take place against a backdrop of political, cultural & generational change.
Generations is built by project pen team for audiences desperate for new stories and myths. !
The stories are currently being illustrated in Graphic Novel format, and will be licensed to producers in the TV, Film & Animation space.
The selected Synopses, Visuals & Character Biographies in this presentation are confidential, and protected by US copyright law. !
Generations is a work of fiction inspired by historical events. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Prologue: “A New World Dawns”
!
“I will restore what the Ottomon’s destroyed… our sense of purpose.” Sharif Hussein
Synopsis: Year: 1915-1924 !
The Ottomon Empire is falling. As one civilization retracts, another appears on the horizon. This horizon belongs to those who are strong and cunning enough to claim it.
In a tent in Western Arabia the Sharif of Mecca and his three sons, Faisal, Abdullah & Ali plan a revolt that will reshape the world, and create a new caliphate. Meanwhile, in the corridors of Whitehall, other plans are being made. !
Ranging from the mountains of Mecca, to the Palace of Versailles, “A New World Dawns” is a story of hugerisks, of promises broken, of an old man’s bitterness, and of the intrigues of great powers & tribal rulers to claim the future as their own. !
“We must unite under one banner. This was and always will be our only hope.” Sharif Hussein
Chapter 1: “Laila”
“I was young and foolish. Living my life one day at a time. And always thinking of her..”
Hamad Janbeck
!
Synopsis: Year: 1920-1939" !
The Ottoman Empire has fallen. Ottoman soldiers are being rounded up in the Arab lands to stand trial.
In a province between two valleys known as “Moab”, a Circassian soldier, and former graduate of the Istanbul military school, is being interrogated by a British officer. His name is Hamad Janbeck. !
Janbeck has returned to revisit his past, and his family. A scoundrel, a rouge and a soldier, trouble follows his every footstep. A chance encounter with a strange Scottish captain and a new fighting force, known as the Arab Legion, offer him a place in the world.
EXT. HIJAZ RAILWAY, NIGHT, 1914. !
A young boy sits on the edge of the Hijaz railway, as it makes it ways toward Constantinople. !
He hugs a blanket from Laila’s bedroom, with tears in his eyes.
Chapter 2: “Flight of the Druze”
“Our people have been here for a thousand years. Where will we go?” Zeidan
Synopsis: Year: 1920-1939 !
Under the newly formed League of Nations the French control Syria as a “mandated” territory. Their rule has proven deeply unpopular, none more so than with the local Druze community, who rise up against French rule.
Feeling threatened, the French react with an air campaign that destroys entire communities. Zahida, Zeidan and their newly born baby never hurt anyone, but they are caught in the cross-hairs. !
Only a baby girl, survives.
Chapter 3: “A Walk Through the Orange Groves”
“Ha! Why do they need to come here. Let me see if these machines can do what my girls do. But I wish you luck. Now let Jamila do some work, be off with you!” Nasra Hazboun Synopsis: Year: 1928-1948" !
Helaneh is Bethlehem’s favorite “tom-boy”: a girl with an unstoppable heart, and an undeniable spirit. Her best friend Jamila, is a little more temperate… working as a seamstress in the workshop of Nasra Hazboun, she has to be. !
Helaneh wishes she has a job like Jamila, making the fashionable Palestinian dresses that are covering Bethlehem and the surrounding countryside in color. So when the Singer Sewing Company begins to offer training classes in Bethlehem Helaneh - as always - throws herself in, head first. “A Walk Though the Orange Groves” tells a story of village life, creativity, fashion and community leading up to 1948. !
HELANEH !
Finally I will might a job. I won’t have to listen to my father and brothers moaning!
Chapter 5: “Radio Cairo”
“That was quite a performance today, Ahmad. You speak for us all, only more eloquently… Iraq will be first, and Jordan next.” Prime Minister Ali Sabri Synopsis: Year: 1950" !
It’s 1950s in Cairo, and a Radio DJ called “Ahmad Sai’d” is the official voice of General Nasser’s regime, on Radio Cairo. !
At the apex of Egyptian society, Ahmad is the voice of revolution in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and beyond. He’s a hero to the ‘man in the street’. A pillar of the regime promising all Arabs a future independent from colonialism and the West. Ahmad is the Middle East’s first media superstar. !
After work, he spends his time in Cairo’s fashionable Parisian Cafe’s and Salons, where he smokes bourbon, and lights ladies’ cigars: the charming face of a new and modern kind of corruption.
AHMAD SAI’D !
Where is our dignity! Where is our future! Where is self-determination for our people? This is why there must be some kind of union between the Syrian and Egyptian peoples. This is why General Nasser and the Egyptian people stand by the Syrian people. This is why there must be, brothers and sisters, a United Arab Republic, and unity!
Chapter 5: “The Last King of Iraq”
“That was quite a performance today, Ahmad. You speak for us all, only more eloquently… Iraq will be first, and Jordan next.” Prime Minister Ali Sabri Synopsis: Year: 1950" !
It’s 1950s in Cairo, and a Radio DJ called “Ahmad Sai’d” is the official voice of General Nasser’s regime, on Radio Cairo. !
At the apex of Egyptian society, Ahmad is the voice of revolution in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and beyond. He’s a hero to the ‘man in the street’. A pillar of the regime promising all Arabs a future independent from colonialism and the West. Ahmad is the Middle East’s first media superstar. !
After work, he spends his time in Cairo’s fashionable Parisian Cafe’s and Salons, where he smokes bourbon, and lights ladies’ cigars: the charming face of a new and modern kind of corruption.
Captain Arif We cannot allow any of their line control this country from exile.
Chapter 11: “Poster Artist”
“I used to be a writer. I wrote fiction, but these my friend are political times, where no one has time to look up at the stars, or countenance the universe. Which is a shame.” Hakim Synopsis: Year: 1972" !
Its the 1970s in Beirut, and politics is everywhere. Lebanon is split into a thousand pieces, between leftists and palestinian freedom fighters, christian and muslim, Lenin and Nixon.
In the middle of all this, an artist paints. His name is Hakim. Suspicious and exhausted of the world around him, he wants the one thing no one in Lebanan can ever have - to be left alone.
When Hakim’s brother knocks on his door asking for a poster, Hakim quickly learns that the only way his art will ever be valued in such an environment is if it serves a political purpose. Hakim makes his brother his poster. Other knocks on his door follow.
As a dozen factions begin to fight in a bloody civil-war, Hakim preserves his independence and cynicism by making posters for each of them.
! !
BERNARD We all hate politics. But you said yourself… these are political times. We cannot avoid politics. Art cannot avoid politics.
Chapter 11: “Corner Shop”
“We had already lost our home twice. My family had already suffered the indignity and psychological trauma of displacement before. Could it really be happening again, in this cursed corner of Earth?” Hani Synopsis: Year: 1990" !
Hani and his family have already fled from war twice; in 1948, and then in 1967. Like so many Palestinians, they arrived in Kuwait to hopes of a new life. For a while, they were living the dream. On the night of August 2nd 1990 all of that changes. As the clunk of mortar fire sounds and another occupation begins, Hani and his family become prisoners in their own home. Each week, he watches his wife venture out alone to buy food from the corner-shop.
A family watch war through the curtains.
BBC WORLD SERVICE !
“More than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers and 700 tanks invaded the Gulf state of Kuwait in the early hours of this morning.”
Chapter 14: “Ground Zero”
Synopsis: Year: 2001-2012."
“Stuck in the rain waiting for my taxi… late for my Cable News interview. Can’t believe this! #NYC” @MunaBlogger on Twitter.
!
The story starts with flashbacks of September 11th, and the global war on Terror. We fast-forward, to 2006.
A diminutive lady in a colorful headscarf hails a cab in the New York rain. Her name is Muna, and she’s a well known Egyptian blogger. She’s late for a big interview, on Cable News.
On the face of it, Muna is blessed. A graduate scholarship at Columbia’s prestigious media department. Appearances on television. A growing love-interest with someone who can relate. !
She blogs as President Obama talks in Cairo, as a fruit seller burns himself alive in Tunisia, and as American marines capture Bin Laden in Pakistan. Somewhere, somehow, Muna becomes trapped; trapped between two cultures she equally feels part of, alienated by the political discourse of East and West, in trouble for asking the hard questions.
She retreats into a digital world, where people understand her. Her experiences make her numb, but never bitter. She makes the journey back home, to Egypt.
MUNA – VIDEO BLOG !
To the West…. Yes, Hello, I’m wearing a headscarf…. Get over it! !
To the East…. a girl walking alone in the street does not mean she is a prostitute! Please. The sad truth is there is no freedom on either side.
Chapter 15: “Pharaoh”
“How can we live like this? Are we always to be ruled by a Pharaoh? Is this truly, all we understand?” Geeza Synopsis: Year: 2010-2014" !
A Pharaoh speaks out across television screens in Cairo. In the streets there is violence.
Geeza is an activist and graffiti artist who paints what he thinks on the streets. He’s part of an educated, affluent, underground. Majdy, can’t look at his own children. He wakes up with hot sweats screaming. The Muslim Brotherhood always looked after him and his family. They always will. They know best.
Dina is a Coptic Christian girl who knows the world around her is changing. Children always know these things. One night, she steals away to Tahrir Square with Joseph, to be part of something she doesn’t understand, but feels. A man called Sisi appears on a television screen.
Joseph finds Dina crying in a corner of the Square. They are both so happy, to make it safely home.
EXT. Town of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, Night of 16th December 2010. !
A 26 year old man called Mohamed Bouazizi pays $200 for a fruit cart, at the local market. !
A group of kids wave to the man, smiling: he’s well known.
Chapter 15: “Kafir”
ABDULLAH “They can afford to bomb Iraq but can’t afford to help Syria, you get me? It’s crazy.”
Synopsis: Year: 2012-2014" !
Abdullah is an ordinary British-Pakistani teenager messing up his life. His parents are supportive, but not entirely aware of the world he’s growing up in.
‘Kafir’ charts Abdullah’s journey from a ‘typical pak’ and a bad influence, into a disaffected and lonely young man looking for something or someone to believe in. Abdullah finds a sense of belonging in an internet-driven version of Islam, which entices him to catch a plane to Jordan, and a trip across the border into warn-torn Syria.
In the center of the fighting as a foreign fighter, Abdullah watches helplessly as the anti-government forces of AlNusra evolve into a perversion of everything he believes in; the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
CUT TO: !
INT. BREAKFAST TABLE, BRADFORD ENGLAND, SEPTEMBER 2012. !
Cornflakes and toast; a hurried English breakfast table in a middle-class home, in rural Bradford. A father sits at the table with his youngest son, Bilal. !
BILAL is no more than sixteen. Fresh-faced and gentle features.
Chapter 15: “Other Stories”
Artwork by Sandra Dajani
Download me.
Š Copyright project pen 2015