PRE-SCRIPT TREATMENT
OVERVIEW
“We’re Not Brothers” explores post-traumatic sexuality in a post-apocalyptic world. Like most films with zombies, this story centres on those left alive; in this case, two young men residing in an isolated bunker with their militaristic caregiver.
Twenty-somethings Tomko and Kostek reside underground with the Colonel, an older man they call ‘Sir.’ We learn through dialogue that the Colonel sexually abused the men as children. Since ageing out of his attraction, the ‘soldiers’ perform various tasks that keep them protected and alive behind their containment walls. The strapping and personable Tomko is an archer, hunter, and trader. Tomko performs many physical duties for the ageing Colonel, while the gangly and brooding Kostek cares for the chickens and garden and cans food for trade with a nearby village. He’s a ravenous reader who tends bees for honey to trade for books.
Tomko and Kostek give in to their desires during an overnight hunting mission only to suffer a violent reprisal from the Colonel that sets them on a path to liberation, happiness, and eventual tragedy.
CHARACTER SET-UP
Unnamed Script: Notes
Setting: Post societal collapse – peaceful with the occasional 'ghoul.'
Mazurka Lakeland, a survivalist bunker, inner court of bunker, river, woods, thriving village in a castle.
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Characters:
Tomko – [muscular – shorn head – age 21] History: At the height of the ghoul-uprising, his mother dies on his 6th birthday, turns ghoul, and attacks. The Colonel saves him with Kostek in tow. The Colonel sexually abuses him until age fourteen but also trains him as a soldier at base camp (the bunker). He's taught hunting, trapping, and archery.
The Colonel/Sir – [physically fit – shorn head – age 57] History: a former soldier, he built and lived in an underground bunker surrounded by an entrance yard and a 12-foot concrete block wall before the ghouls rose. During the chaos, he collected two orphaned boys and brought them to his secured 'base camp.' A pedophile, he abuses the boys until they age out of his interest, all the while training them to be soldiers. They must call him Sir, and he insists the men are brothers.
Kostek – [thin – tall – age 23] History: After his parents became ghouls, the Colonel rescued and raised him in his base camp as a soldier. He's taught to read, cook, and skin animals. The Colonel sexually abuses him until age sixteen and then intermittently until the present.
There’s an expression in Polish that goes 'przytul mnie', which means, 'let me be the one.' It sounds desperate, and that’s why I like it so much.
I started formulating a new screenplay today – basic slug: While ghouls roam the countryside, two men find love after a troubled childhood spent in a perverted man’s survivalist compound.
Will think on the characters tonight.