South Africa, January 07, 2010

The heat of the bush desert yesterday hit me slowly and in an amazing volume. It was just wind and sun. Mostly in the shade.

And the way the silence is broken by any and all sounds. And how far it travels.

It was the first day of shooting. With a crew of about ten. Smallest ever.

And so much the way I like it. Cameras the size of midgets. So free and fabulous. Improvisation. So easy and simple to do. Working with a lovely female writer director on the story of her two year's world travel.

We totally understand each other. I know I will give her what she wants and more. Also working with an actress who is very pure and bright. And you would think impossible to work with as she's just turned seventeen.

Anyway. We just had a rehearsal for the shoot tonight. On the 2nd day we have to be in bed and feel good about it. We are cool now. One thing I threw in was a piece I have always wanted to put in a film.

A small piece of text taken from Herodotus. I think I have tried 4 times but it never fit. So was abandoned.

Let me leave it here.

"After having picked her up dehydrated and close to going into shock from the desert, she wakes up in his makeshift tent home and is freezing. She decides to ask if she can sleep in the Antonio's bed. They settle into this and as she starts to get warmer as well as drifting back to sleep, he picks up what he was reading and reads it again. It just happens to be a perfect piece of the girl's puzzle".

"We die....we die rich with lovers and tribes...
.tastes we have swallowed...
bodies we have entered...and
swum up like rivers...
I want all these marked on my body
because we are the real countries.
Not the boundaries drawn on maps
with the names of powerful men."

Rutger

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