The very first script I wrote and filmed, whilst at University in 1995, “Wasteland” is an adaptation of T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland”. Set in a post-industrial age where today’s problems of pollution and over population have taken there toll on the world, it is a tale of one woman’s quest to come to terms with and survive her life and her future.
The land has been starved of water, plant life can no longer extract the necessary nutrients to survive, the land is a barren desert, acid rain is so potent it damages the skin on contact and all electrical power production has ground to a halt. After the death of her husband, a woman, “The Wanderer”, goes in search of the object of his interest, “The Holy Grail”, the mythical source of pure water that can change the world. Her lack of faith in her future causes her to reflect on the past, as she moves through the wasteland on her quest, we see flashes of the events that have brought her to this place and time. Finally she reaches her goal, the cave which holds the Grail, and tastes the water from the cup, spitting it out in disgust, realising that it proves not to be the answer to her problems at all.
EXT: A BRIDGE.
WIDE ANGLE SHOT we see a bridge with lots of figures passing over it, they are all wearing ragged clothing and dust masks, a taller figure is directing them, his face mask has pearl coloured glasses on. THE WANDERER walks across the bridge in the opposite direction.
MEDIUM SHOT A table with a CLAIRVOYANT sitting behind it, shuffling Tarot cards, THE WANDERER sits at the table and lays down a silver coin.
CLOSE UP OF TABLE The CLAIRVOYANT lays six cards on the table.
ZOOM IN CLOSE To one of the cards The Lady Of The Rocks
