Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Story so far:
Mid-winter 1992. Ukraine a year on from independence from Soviet Russia. JAN (33) Chemical Engineer, is overseeing MetaOil UK’s new Ukrainian investment. She uncovers corrupt Mafia machinations involving the Russian refinery manager DETLEV (55) and her London boss, DAVID. She tries to finger them with the help of glamorous TATIANA (50) DETLEV’s unwilling mistress, and her son, ANATOLE (33). ANATOLE has enlisted the Ukrainian mafia’s (UKMAF) help via his friend, OLEG. The Black Sea is an acid lake of industrial effluent where DETLEV dissolves those who cross him. DETLEV has just realised TATIANA, ANATOLE and JAN are working against him.

Interior: Detlev’s office
DETLEV leans against front of his desk.

Detlev
(Russian always with subtitles) Find them! Anatole
Gregorovich, and the English girl. Use the column.
Bring Tatiana Petrovna to me.

Goon 1
And then, Boss?

DETLEV leans back and reaches for a box of matches beside his cigar box. He tosses the matches to Goon 2 who catches them by his chest.

Detlev
Don’t waste them!

The goons grin at each other, uncertain whether this is a joke. DETLEV cracks a smile. Both laugh too loudly.

Goon 1
Where, Boss?

Detlev
The drain door, fool, on the main column. Open. Light
the match and...

He mimes an explosion effect.

Exterior: Lorry park outside Serveradonetsk
OLEG in animated conversation with a tall tanker driver and others. The men separate and head for the lorries behind. Close-up: doors slamming, exhaust fumes as lorries start up.

Interior: Corridor outside Jan’s office
JAN and TATIANA sneak towards JAN’s office, using the shadows. TATIANA continues past the office door. JAN pulls on her arm and queries with her face ‘Ok?’ TATIANA nods. JAN points to her own eyes, then at TATIANA, then back in the direction of outside. TATIANA nods. They part.

Interior: Store room
ANATOLE alone. He goes to a filing drawer and riffles through documents. He pulls out a flow chart with refinery product flows and siphons marked up. A close-up of the plan shows it is littered with hand-drawn symbols: Ukrainian Mafia symbol, Russian hammer and sickle, and a Union Jack. This is the evidence JAN needs to pinpoint DETLEV’s and DAVID’s corruption. ANATOLE puts it on the top of the cabinet and reaches for his hat. Suddenly he is seized from behind, gagged and arms pulled behind his back by Goon 1.

Interior: Jan’s office, low light
JAN rummages on her desk and finds her camera. The satellite phone rings. She freezes. Ansaphone clicks on –

David (on phone)
Jan. You’ve blown it now. Detlev is furious with you.
Sarah’s booking your flight back to London. Call me.
Now.

JAN makes a rude gesture to the phone and leaves.

Exterior: Aerial view of road heading for the refinery
OLEG’s convoy of 6 lorries approach the refinery.

Exterior: Main column, the refinery
ANATOLE is pushed up the ladders on the main column – passing level 4 on the column. ANATOLE is struggling but can’t escape Goon 1’s grip.

Interior: Store room
JAN slips carefully inside the door.

Jan
Anatole! Let’s go.

Silence. She looks under the table – empty. She spots the flow-chart on the cabinet, picks it up, realises what it is, pockets it and dashes out.

Exterior: Level 5 of main column
Goon 2 is tying up ANATOLE. Goon 1 pulls a bottle of vodka from his pocket, holds it up to ANATOLE but drinks from it himself.

Goon 1
(Russian) Nasdrovia! A fire for your belly!

Interior: Detlev’s office
DETLEV holds a cigar and is feeling in his drawer for a match. He can’t find any – having given his box away. He’s rummaging when the door opens and TATIANA walks into the room. She has cleaned herself up and found her high heels somewhere – though her legs tremble. She wears a neat leather jewelled collar with a hammer and sickle symbol.

Tatiana
(Russian) I am here, Detlev.

TATIANA indicates her leather collar.

Tatiana (cont’d)
I obey.

TATIANA is controlled, determined.

Tatiana (cont’d)
Forgive Anatole. Let him live.

Exterior: Base of main column
Goons swig Vodka. Goon 1 gestures to a drain slot: querying face.

Goon 2
(Russian) What about the girl?

Goon 1
Later. Let’s get him going.

Goon 2 shrugs. Goon 1 opens a drain slot, hot oil ignites. Goons jump back, startled and knock over a metal drum. They laugh.

Exterior: Level 5, main column
ANATOLE bound and gagged. Frightened, he hears the metal drum fall.

Exterior: Base of column
Goon 1 tosses match after lighted match into the drain slot, enjoying the arson and wasting matches. The flames rise to the level of the second set of steps. The goons step back from their handiwork, swig more vodka.

Goon 2
(Russian) Come on. The English woman.

Exterior: Unit next to the base of main column
JAN peers round the unit to see the goons leave. She takes in the fire growing at the base of the column. Panicking she scans the column, screws up her eyes to see a figure crouched on level 5. As she watches a leg kicks against the metal walkway – definitely a person.

Exterior: Close-up outside lorry-cab windscreen
View of OLEG sitting next to the tanker driver from earlier. The Ukrainian Mafia (UKMAF) symbol swings from the central mirror. OLEG and the driver exchange a grim look, face forward again.

Interior: Detlev’s office
DETLEV stares at TATIANA.

Detlev
(Russian) Dogs!

Immediately two other burly goons (3 and 4) enter from a side door and seize TATIANA. She does not resist.

Exterior: Ladders on main column
JAN is climbing steps madly, above the level of the fire.

Jan
Anatole! Anatole!

Exterior: Base, main column
Flames rising above the second level of steps. The figures of two operators are seen emerging from other control huts. They see the fire and don’t know what to do.

Exterior: Main column, level 5
JAN reaches ANATOLE at level 5. She cries out when she sees him bound and gagged.

Jan
I have the documentation.

ANATOLE nods as she shows him the flow chart in her pocket. She pulls off his gag.

Anatole
Where is Mama?

JAN looks worried and sets to work on his bonds.

Exterior: Base of the staircase outside Detlev’s office
TATIANA struggles with the goons bundling her into the black Mercedes. DETLEV is descending the staircase. TATIANA doesn’t cry out. She senses he is there, and stops struggling. She holds herself tall and looks at DETLEV.

Tatiana
(Russian) We all die like dogs. Your day will come.

DETLEV looks weary and sad. He shakes his head. Goons 3 and 4 get TATIANA in the car and leap into the front seat. TATIANA cranes to look for JAN or ANATOLE but doesn’t see them. DETLEV follows her gaze which means he walks out into the main entrance of the refinery. He sees nothing on site, so turns and waves to the Mercedes as it drives out and turns towards the Black Sea, the acid lake.

Exterior: Main column, level 5
ANATOLE shakes off his bonds and stands just in time to see TATIANA being bundled into DETLEV’s Mercedes from his viewpoint on the column. He shouts to JAN and points. Both watch as the door closes on TATIANA, car pulls away and DETLEV waves from the refinery entrance.

Anatole
Noooo!

Exterior: Refinery entrance
DETLEV turns to head back to his office. He shivers: he has no coat. He hears a lorry approaching at full revs. He turns – we see two enormous lorries enter the refinery gates together. We know it is OLEG and his UKMAF gang. DETLEV is caught by surprise, and without goon back up. One lorry accelerates to cut off DETLEV’s escape back to his office, and DETLEV has no option but to begin to walk backwards onto the refinery site.

Exterior: Level 5, main column
ANATOLE rushes to follow his mother. He leaps towards a walkway on level 4 which is a quicker way down. The lower walkway caves in and he falls another level, nearer to the flames. He is knocked unconscious in the fall.

Interior: Black Mercedes
TATIANA sits on the back seat, erect, terrified but dignified, facing forward. Her hands are bound in front of her. She fiddles with her Cossack ring (similar symbol to UKMAF).

Exterior: Onsite
DETLEV is herded onsite by the two front lorries. Other lorries drive up among the industrial columns/units to cut off any chance of escape there. DETLEV shivers, looking around for an escape.

Detlev
(Russian) Dogs! Stinking dogs!

Exterior: Level 5, main column
JAN tries to climb down to ANATOLE when the steps between her and level 3, where he is lying, collapse and fall into the flames below. Close-up of JAN’s face.

Exterior: Base, main column
Refinery workmen pass a chain of water buckets to put out the fire – a risible response to an industrial catastrophe. None look up, so don’t see ANATOLE’s prone figure or JAN gesticulating.

Exterior: Aerial shot above the Black Sea over the road
Black Mercedes pulls up near the path leading to the Black Sea, doors open. Goons bundle TATIANA out and march her along the path.

Exterior: Base of main column
Workmen with water buckets scatter as the lorries haul into view and DETLEV is backed against the column alone. He slips on some of the water on snow, scrambles back to his feet, kicks a bucket, and backs as close as he dare to the column, frantically looking round for an escape.

Exterior: Level 3, main column
ANATOLE lies unconscious. The smoke around him is black and acrid. He coughs, and starts to move.

Exterior: Black Sea
We see TATIANA’S legs in close-up and the icy lake beyond. Goon 3 is breaking the ice. We hear TATIANA shivering. A flash of light crosses our view as she drops her Cossack ring. There’s a gun-shot and her body falls prone into view. We still focus on her legs which get pulled out of sight, leaving us concentrated on the Cossack ring. We hear a splash as her body is thrown into the lake. A large black boot tramples the ring.

Exterior: Level 5, main column
JAN shouts hopelessly at ANATOLE who’s crawling towards a collapsed walkway, and to the people below – no one hears her above the noise of the fire. JAN tries to close a product valve near her – it is jammed stuck.

Exterior: Base of main column
DETLEV cowers near the fire. The first lorry’s door opens and OLEG and the tanker driver climb out. Both have guns. DETLEV faces OLEG and the tanker driver. He edges towards the control hut, but more UKMAF men with rifles arrive around the side of the hut. One drives a man-lift from the other side, surrounding DETLEV.

Detlev
(Russian) Dogs! Where are you?

Interior: Store room
Goons 1 and 2 consume the rest of their bottle of vodka. Goon 1 strikes the last matches in the box. The other simply drinks.

Goon 1
(Russian) Get – English woman!

Goon 2 collapses in giggles.

Exterior: Black Mercedes parked by road
Goons 3 and 4 sit in the front seats, sharing a cigarette and listening to a pop song on the radio. They tap along to the music.

Exterior: Level 5, main column
JAN gives up trying to close one of the feeder valves near her. She notices ‘5’ hand-written on the side of the column. This jogs her memory. She races up the ladders, looking up.

Exterior: Base of main column
DETLEV is loaded into the man-lift which rises up beside the column above the fire. All UKMAF men train their guns on DETLEV. Their POV throughout, DETLEV moves further away.

UKMAF leader
(Russian) You started it, Russian fool. Now you stop it
– close the valves. Be fearless.

DETLEV shouts but we can’t hear over the noise of the fire.

UKMAF leader (cont’d)
You think you Russians can take our benzene, eh?

DETLEV is shouting as it gets hotter and hotter.

UKMAF leader (cont’d)
You think you Russians are the boss?

The man-lift raises DETLEV higher and closer to the flames

UKMAF leader (cont’d)
Fearless, comrade Detlev! Be fearless!

Exterior: Main column, levels 10–11
JAN races up more steps – and sees her newly-installed deluge system, gleaming on the other side of a walkway. She plunges across and the metalwork comes away behind her and falls. She darts behind the concrete wall supporting the deluge system to the on/off switch.

Exterior: View of man-lift from below
Same POV as scene above. DETLEV is now hard to see in the man lift, but he leans over the side, screaming at the UKMAF men below.

Exterior: Metalwork/pipework on the column
The metalwork dislodged by JAN falls on some pipe ducts just above DETLEV’s man-lift. The ducts crack, venting some gas to air. Sparks fly past from the fire below.

Exterior: View of man-lift close-up
We are on a level with DETLEV and see his fear and rage. He leans forward in the man-lift. Close-up on his face –

Detlev
(Russian) UKRAINIAN PIGS!

Next instant we see the ball of fire of the gas explosion. DETLEV disappears into it.

Exterior: Base of main column
UKMAF men scatter for cover as DETLEV’s man-lift explodes.

Exterior: By the deluge system
JAN is knocked down beside the deluge system with the force of the explosion.

Exterior: Other side of the column
ANATOLE clings to a flimsy metal walkway in the lee of the explosion.

Exterior: By the deluge system
JAN struggles back to her feet and pulls the switch to the deluge system – it is the simple on/off lever she tested before – and she pulls it ‘on’ with two hands.

Exterior: Aerial view of main column
We see the deluge system jetting quantities of water over the main column, differing views of the water jets, solid walls of water falling onto the flaming column.

Exterior: Black Sea
Middle distance shot of the Black Sea from the little path, looking towards the lake and broken ice. Our viewpoint closes in on the lake, the hole in the ice, through the water to TATIANA’s body on the bottom of the lake, echoing the opening credits shot. We still don’t see her full body, but now we know who it is.

FADE TO BLACK.