Final Innocence

grown-ups

Although they did not know each other before, they both came to Bosnia to find a military general who caused all the carnage in this territory, in order to bring him to justice in The Hague. A local Gypsy was supposed to help them, take care of them, and find out where the general was hiding.

But it soon becomes clear that each of the three has their own secret and motive for participating in the mission. Mary has come to Bosnia to find the truth about her missing father, John is hiding his real name, and the Gypsy is running from his own demons.

MARY: Don’t you see this chain of omens which has brought us precisely here, to become precisely the people we are, precisely where we have to be for destiny to unfold?

(John is busy with the burner.)

MARY: Haven’t you heard of Medjugorje? (John doesn’t respond.) Don’t you know what was happening there?

JOHN: No.

MARY: The Virgin Mary used to appear to three children, year after year.

JOHN: No doubt the place was crawling with pilgrims. Manna for local shopkeepers.

MARY: Can’t you see that was an omen? Foreshadowing ruined cities, raped women, skulls, bones?

JOHN: And what else?

MARY: Why would the Virgin Mary appear to people who could already smell what was coming?

JOHN: Smell, did they?

MARY: Even animals. Only they were clever. I have information that in the years before the first shot was fired fifty bears deserted these woods.

JOHN: Were they counted by the Italians while crossing their border?

MARY: And wolves. In the two years before it all started there wasn’t a single case of wolf killing sheep.

JOHN: What about foxes? If they are as wily as they’re supposed to be, they should’ve been the first to make a dash for the nearest border.

MARY: There is another omen which proves I’m right. If you weren’t so preoccupied with yourself you’d have seen it a long time ago. (John shrugs.) It’s staring you in the face.

(John looks around the hut in spite of himself.)

Don’t you find it unusual that we’re called John and Mary?