"Life happens quickly, like the mountains in the background." "And you wake up one day and you don't know how you got there." "And you wonder: "How long have I been asleep?"" ""Where have I been?" And nothing is recognizable... everything is different from the last time you woke." "Years have past." "And years are passing." "And you suddenly know with absolute precision that you will die." "And then comes the choice:" "To go back to sleep and hope that next time you wake everything has arranged itself, and you'll be happy." "Or you choose to stay awake, to struggle with this unsatisfactory surroundings to create something, anything, to love." "I was born from the adverse winds." "They name hurricanes after me." "If you hide from death, you hide from life." "My name is Emily." "MY NAME IS EMILY" "You said that was the day that changed your life." "Time has stopped, nothing remained." "Just that room, your wife..." "And me." "And then you realize..." "you've become a father." "And You knew nothing." "You said you stared into a great emptiness." "And you took a step." "And everything you read, all roads and rivers of thought led You back to the one, same truth." "You had a daughter." "And You knew nothing." "She always said you were quiet." "In like a year after I was born, you're even more quiet." "Never going out, never saying why." "You lock yourself in your study night and day." "Until one night, without warning, you spoke." "Dead or alive." "Some roam the earth like they are alive for hundreds of years and they will live hundreds more." "You see how he dresses his armor, but the fear in your eyes I can't hide." "You spoke about the things you're dread for the last year." "About what it's like to be a father, about how you were swimming in the ocean when you were a kid." "You spoke in a way you've never spoken before." "She said it was like watching a man giving birth to himself." "You told everyone you had a new teacher, teaching you the most important things in life." "I was your teacher, and you were mine." "They called me a weirdo (freak)." " They're right." " Because I was reading!" "They're still right." "Come here." "Read." ""Weird, suggesting something supernatural, or unnatural."" "And here." ""From the old English 'wyrd'," ""I mean destiny, fate or the power to control destiny."" " Yes." " So..." " So?" " They don't know that." "But now You do." "That's how I felt like when you spoke to me." "The world is new and small, it's large and always expanding." "And is your heart beating fast in his chest, because you're alive." "You started teaching at the local school." "Life for beginners." "We blindly walked on roads built by others." "And the biggest tragedy of all is that we believed a huge lie." "And that is that we will live forever, that we'll never die." "But all roads lead to death." "And having traveled on roads built by others, we arrive at death, without having lived truly." "You told people to live, to swim, to fight, to love." "But just when you started to get to have sex you began to be heeded." "You said that people don't have sex enough and that, in place to go on holidays expensive should be staying at the local hotels and to have sex." "This is who we are!" "Come!" "And before anyone decided you're a threat to the system, it was too late: you've become famous." "Most of you have accepted it." "But you were just getting started." "We have been taught to hide, to death from each other." "We found so many ways to spent our time..." "We observe, prepare, make plans about how to live our lives when we will be ready." "Are you ready?" "Kids, we have a new girl, Emily." "Do you want to say a few words about you, Emily?" "Or maybe not." "Find yourself a seat, my dear." "The streets stretch on forever, but none of them lead to the sea." "Further, all the more, but never to the sea." "I'm sinking deep, all the way down." "Deep down, way down." "I'm drowning on these streets." "Steve and June are not the adoptive parents bad." "I've had worse." "I know that I am here because he wanted to be June." "Every day, it kills me." "With gentleness, the Conversations pointless and freshness permanent." "Every day, expect us to be happy on Christmas day." " Clean Towel, my dear?" " Thanks." "Until I feel overwhelmed and I can't breathe." "It was different." "I fell in love with a dancer." "Was spinning like a ray of light that dance." "I looked at her and I felt more detached, but still aware that at any time." "Danced until I felt like I was choking and my heart is full." "So I felt home." "He thought I was sick, tired or cold." "But it was love." "Arden, move your ass!" "Nothing, my dear?" "I'm sure he'll come." "I'm late to school." "Happy birthday..." "Dad..." "There were others, but none of them were like her." "I wanted to disappear into the pores of her skin pale." "If you've electrocuted ever, understand." "The body becomes one and the same with the heart, then it stops." "You feel alive and dead at the same time." "So I felt." ""Even if the radius, living another day"" ""My eyes forever they would be taken" ""Even if forever I overshadow-will the clouds"" ""Splendor of the grass, the glory of the flower"" ""The cure we find, let us not hurt, In what we keep for once."" "Take out your notebooks." "Quietly!" "Analyze the stanza, taking into account the following aspects." "Tone." "Diction." "And form." " You don't understand the exercise?" " I did." " Then, what's the problem?" " No problem." "Do you think that the rules don't apply to you, because you're new?" "Do you think you deserve special treatment, like you're the princess of the school?" " No." " What then?" "I just don't want to do what you asked." "You may not have realized, but it was an order, not a request." "I'm exercising my right to disobey orders." "That's not what you want to teach us?" "To have free will, so we don't become Nazis?" " Do you think you're smart?" " I don't want to chop up the poem." "Why not?" "'Cause when you chop something up, you kill it." "You may want to inform us how you have approached the correct verse." "Wordsworth talks about sex." "About the girl with whom he had sex in the grass." "Probably, it was the first time for him." "And for her." "Don't say anything like that." "A French girl, Annette Vallon, the daughter of a barber-surgeon, with whom he had an illegitimate daughter, Anne Caroline." "He was wildly in love with, but he was ashamed of what he did, so he abandoned her and the little girl." "He felt guilty and he hasn't ever written about love and sex, just bypassed, through descriptions of nature." ""That though the radiance which was once so bright"" ""be now forever taken from my sight."" ""Though nothing can bring back the hour"" ""Splendor in the grass, the glory in the flower"" ""We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind."" "He loved her, but because of the mores of the weather, he abandoned her and the child." "He never saw his daughter again." "What's wrong with You?" "Leave her in peace." "I can take care of myself, thank you." "When she died, she took with her the light." "They told me she had gone to other places, better places." "But I knew she hadn't." "She always knew where I was or where I was in the house." "Now I couldn't feel her anywhere." "They told me she'd gone somewhere." "And if she had, I would have gone there too." "She was nowhere." "And now no one knew where I was." "When you frown under the water, make a noise." "But you cannot cry." "Sometimes I can hear it." "Like a hurricane, like an underwater wind..." "A Music." "They always listened to loud music, when I wasn't in the car." "They said it makes them feel young again." "My dad keep all my notes for classes, all his notes, in the trunk of the car." "When they did crash, they were scattered on the road." "Everything you worried about, everything you ever feared..." "Gone in the blink of an eye..." "Driven by something much more horrible than you imagined ever." "I was at home, waiting for them." "It was my birthday." "What happened?" "Are you okay?" "You can't swim?" "You can't swim..." "What the hell you're playing at, jumping in the deep if you can't swim?" "What's wrong with you?" "It's my birthday." "For God's Sake!" "Go on, you're done for today." "Freak!" "OK guys, let's move on!" "Hi!" "I'm from you school." "I told you, I can take care of myself." "Yeah, but you looked sad, so I followed you home." "And I got you this." "I wanted help you feel better." " You better come in." " Okay." "It really is your birthday, isn't it?" "I thought maybe you were joking." "You don't have a restriction of religious against gifts, I hope." "Because I don't know you're very well." "I didn't know what to buy you, I brought you something what I like." " Have you read it?" " Yes." " It is an older copy." " Yes." "Grandma says it's the best, it keeps the memory of hands on 'em." "He was hers, she gave it to me." " What's your name?" " Arden." "Happy birthday!" "Oh my god!" "You don't want it?" "I'll see you around..." "Damn!" "We'll talk tomorrow." "And I'm new in the area." "We moved here a year ago." "I'm half Irish." "Grandma is from Ireland." "And my dad, obviously her son." "I work in a video shop." "Do you like swimming?" "Here it is." " Beautiful house!" " Yeah... would you like to come in?" " See you tomorrow." " Pa!" "Hi, Emily!" "Still nothing, dear." "Why do we smile in photos?" "Do we just forget?" "Not knowing how we felt, just like we were told to smile?" "Sleep." "Sleep, angel-face!" " I'm not tired." " I Know." " Try." "Close your eyes." " Okay." " Do you stay with me?" " Yes." " Until I fall asleep?" " Until you fall asleep." "I'll be here when you wake up." " What's this?" " Ahm..." "Not an "Ahm"." "It's a small note." "It says you're easily distracted." "Yes, but the teacher is a complete cow..." "Don't talk back to your mother." "Spend less time in the so-called "job" and with your mad grandmother." "See you later." "Get your bag, we're gone." "Is Arden in?" "Yes, hold on." " Hi!" " Hi, can you talk for a minute?" "Yes, sure." "A few days ago, you said that you want to help me." " Yeah, sure." "What is it?" " Leaving." " Leaving?" " Now." "My father is in a psychiatric institution and my mother died on my birthday." "That's why I was weird when you were looking for me at my house." "I'm being honest because you're the only person I know in this city and I trust you and I don't know why." "My father writes me once a month and on my birthday." "And no letters came, I'm worried about." "I'm going to help him escape from the asylum in which they put him in." "But I can't do it alone, I need your help." "You should know, if you do want to help me, we have to go now." "If I'm not back home until tomorrow at breakfast, my foster parents notify the social services." "Well, I need to have a head-start." "These are the conditions." "We're leaving right now." "Will you help me?" "Forget it." "If you hit him you don't fix anything..." " Where are you going?" " I'm going." " Have you forgotten something?" " I'm leaving." "Pick up your fuckin' school bag and get in the car." "What do you're gonna do, hit me?" "It would be better for you to knock me out." "Emily!" "Oh my god..." "A quiet one." "Not really, when she get's going." " Are you running away?" " No, I don't think so." "There's something I want to do to help her." "That's good." "Anyone can run away." "Your father has been doing it his whole life." "You can't go anywhere in that school uniform, it's soaking wet." "Your grandfather purposed me in this suit on top... of the Empire State building." "That was the last time he wore it." "He said it has done it's duty after that." "I can't take this, grandma." "Why?" "Your grandfather is dead and buried." "Take it." "Help me." "Voilâ!" "Get in." "The interior is quite comfortable." " It will never start." " Try it." "I keep it always with a full tank of patrol." "Your grandfather showed me how." "In case I ever needed to escape." "Everything you need is in the trunk." "Thank you, grandma." "Good luck!" " Nice suit by the way..." " Thanks." " Can we go any faster?" " Ah... no." "You missed the turn." " No I didn't." "We're going that way." " It's better on the highway." " We'll never gonna get there." " We will!" "I want to get there in one piece." " It's dead." "What about yours?" " I don't have one." " I'll be blue." "You'll be white." " What?" " Cars." "One..." " I didn't feel like it, thanks." "No problem." "Just head north." "I'm sorry about your mom." "Thank you." "What is the deal with your dad?" " He is a writer." " Cool!" "Yeah, cool..." " Not really." " No?" "So, where are you from?" "We moved around a lot." "I went from school to school." "Until he took me all together." "He said it was a waste of time." "We were always traveling." "Book tours, lectures..." "We never talked about her." "For him, it was all about living in the moment, to leave behind the past." "But I could hear him at night." "He became obsessive about his work." "Not sleeping, barely eating..." "Day and night." "He became obsessed with the idea that, on a molecular level, there is no difference between us and a blade of grass." "It haunted him." "He started telling me that there are no limits." "And it's important to live the way you like it." "Is that what he was doing." "What a beautiful morning!" "Every day, it was all the more eccentric." "Look at this!" "There were reports on unusual behavior." "And the locals started sending messages." "FREAK!" "So we sent our own message back." "A FACT IS A POINT OF VIEW" "But it got worse." "It doesn't matter, if I'm a blade of grass." "Or she's a blade of grass..." "One blade of grass... with the same molecules, with the same molecules..." "She's got the same molecules, have got the same molecules, we all have the same molecules as a blade of grass." "It's the same, it's just the same!" "She's the same... she's all..." "all together, she's apart." "She's apart, she floating apart!" "And I all twisted 'em together all twisted together, because all the molecules are joined, are the same, we are all the same..." "Dad?" "The incident in Dublin that eventually did it." "He said that he is happy." "That he'd realized the secret of everything, that life and death are connected and that he finally let my mother go, set her free." "But they didn't see it like that..." "They convinced a distant relative to sign the papers." "No, dad!" "Dad, don't go!" "Please don't go..." "Let me say good-bye to my daughter!" "Nothing can separate us, you understand?" "Not these people." "Nobody or nothing." "Do you know why?" "Because we have the sea of souls, haven't we?" "Don't worry." "Don't worry, my beautiful daughter..." "Just remember who you are, okay?" "Always remember who you are." "You're my weirdo, aren't you?" "You're my little weirdo..." "No!" "No, go, please!" "No, it's my dad!" "Come back!" "No, I need you, please!" "I visited him at first, but he become increasingly distant." "He stopped leaving his room." "He stopped calling me by my name." "Emily was my mother's name." "And in the end, they just said the visits were too upsetting for him, that I remind him too much of her and that he needed time." "Great, great..." "Emily what about you?" "I was passed through in the family at first, ended up with my uncles." "They have this son, he's a few years older than me." "He read some adult's books, and he thought that maybe we can put them into practice." "Didn't work out too well." "I had no family after that." "But, wherever I was, dad never stopped writing to me." "The letters became just fragments." "But we were talking." "And then they just stopped all together." "I have this friend who's brother died." "And now his family edit his face into the family pictures." "I don't know why I said that." "That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard." "I never will sleep like this." "Oh, wait!" "She told me to look in the trunk." "What's the plan?" "I'm going to visit him" " You cause a distraction" " I get him out." " That's it?" " Yes." "And if they don't let you see him?" "They have to, I'm his daughter." "But if he's not... sane?" "He's fine." "When my father was a student, he said he loved books." "All he ever did:" "eat, drink and sleep books." "And one day he got a job in one of the big city bookshops." "And he just said he was really happy." "It used to smell books, That's how much he loved them." "His favorite thing to smell was a new book." "And when they put him in charge for the deliveries, he went down to do a stocktaking... new books, comin' in, thousands of books stacked on pallets, hundreds of copies of the same book." "He saw them more as this big giant jigsaw puzzle." "A few days later, and he quit." "He said that he could no longer look at a new book i the same way without seeing the big printing blade slicing through them." "They had lost the special feeling." "They smelled industrial." "He doesn't read anything now." "It's really sad." "Yeah, I know." "I'm sorry, I don't know why I told you about." "Breakfast." " A fact is a point of view." " No, isn't." " Yes, it is." " A fact is a fact." "Where do you think they come from?" "Describe a reality." "We're in the shop: a fact." "No, that's just your point of view." "We may not be in a supermarket." "I don't know if it even exists." "One plus one equals two." "Listen:" "Everything that you call a fact is just a bunch of people getting together, agreeing on something and calling it a fact." "That's why facts change, because people change their minds." ""The earth is flat." "No, it's round."" "You can't blame People wanting to believe in facts," "But, if there is another point of view to agree with us, say an alien, we will never know if our opinions and anything is right or wrong." "And even if we had an alien, that's just two points of view." "Just cause facts are opinions doesn't mean they're wrong." "They're usually right." "But when we forget that they are all well-developed opinions, people starting stupid things, like making atomic bombs." "They say: "We Have to do it, just to show that we could"." "Facts are an excuse for everything." "The sun will rise tomorrow." "Is that a fact?" "No, it's a point of view..." "of a human being - me - at the moment." "And it's a good point of view, I think, cause I think that the sun will rise tomorrow." "But would it rise if I and my opinion didn't exist?" "I don't know!" "I don't know, Emily." "You play with my mind, how you like it." "What do you want me to say?" "I don't know?" "That's right, I don't know!" " Are you happy now?" " What?" "You make me..." "make me feel stupid." "Sorry." "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me." "Just the flowers, please!" "Don't look back." "Just walk." "Just walk normally." " I'm walking normal..." " Now run..." "Run!" "Go!" "Bye!" "What the fuck was that?" "What?" "You said we needed breakfast." "Yes, but you pay for it, like normal people." "I have money." "Got money right there!" "We need that for patrol." "Anyway, what is normal?" "Don't start that again!" "Listen..." "If you gonna do this, I'm gonna help you, you can't be doing that." "OK." " I Need to know what the plan is." " OK." "Not OK, Emily, that is not okay!" "I know you got problems, but..." "What do you know, with your perfect life and your perfect parents?" "You don't know anything about my family!" "You don't ask, so you don't know." "You're not the only one with problems and you only think about yourself..." " I'm not a puppet!" " I know." "You don't know everything." "I know." "I'm sorry." "Fine." "Thanks for coming with me." "You're welcome." "Where are we?" "Listen:" "I don't know if you're thinking that something is gonna happen..." "But it won't." "You offered to help me, I don't owe you anything." "You don't owe me anything." "I'll be blue." " I'll be..." " One!" "Cheater!" "Oh, shit!" "Damn it!" " Are you lost?" " No." "No." " License?" " Yes..." " Oh, shit!" " Excuse Me?" "I left him... it's home, It's at home." "OK, hold on a second." "Drive." "Drive!" " What?" " Sure we get to the station." " Calm down, it's gone..." " Not!" "Do you think they'll let us go?" "Yes, because we haven't done anything wrong." "We've run away." "I stole it from the shop!" "Arden, please, I need to see my father." "Thanks officer, I found him!" "Good-bye!" "Kids..." "There's a sadness in this country..." "In the cities, in the streets... in the fields and in the trees." "A sadness we cannot hide." " I'm starving." " You're always starving." "I don't recognize this." "It's been a long time." "Sorry, I had to understand what you're saying?" "We'll find it." "What's your family like?" "They're OK." "If "OK" means totally fucked up." "I don't remember a thing like this." "It's weird." "I often wonder how long it will take me not being..." "like them." "Or is the damage done?" "We are so lost." "I know this place." "You can drive onto the beach." "We did it all the time when I was younger." "Okay." " Too close to the water!" " What?" "We're too close to the sea!" "Have you heard?" "Yeah, like that works..." "You're a genius!" "Wait for me!" " Placed the front." " Okay, get out of there." "Has it no bottom?" "Has it no bottom, to lay on the floor?" "Cool!" "Hand me that pole..." "You ever done this?" "You're done?" "Or the condom is too big?" " Don't!" " Sorry." "Would you look at this, weird prick!" "You're done inside, let someone else have a go?" "Come on, get lost..." "How brave!" "Tell me to get lost." "Yeah, get lost..." "I don't want to fight you, guys." "Are you all right?" "Little prick!" "Don't do this!" "I told you he was a gay!" "Your boyfriend ran off." "But it doesn't mean we can have some fun." "Fuck off!" " Eoin!" "Eoin!" " What?" "What?" "Out." " Are you all right?" " Yes." "It's not even real." "This is my grandfather's gun." "He fought in civil war." "Not that you'd know anything about that, bitch up in the head!" "No, Arden!" "I hate bullies." "Now fuck off." "Fuck off!" "Go." "Breakfast?" "There it is." "The building is old." "Staff by the grounds." "OK, James Bond." "What's the plan?" "FEAR GOD IN LIFE" "I'm lost." "I'm looking for my father's room." " What's his name, dear?" " Robert Egan." " And you are?" " Emily, Emily Egan." "114." "Top the stairs, then turn left." "Thank you." "Hey, come on down!" "Dad?" "Emily?" "Come on down!" " Where is he?" " He's gone." "What do you mean he's gone?" "Only a few days ago." "Dr. Golding, I'm the director of this establishment." " Where's my father?" " Why do we haven't tea in my office." "Your friend will be in when he has finished playing with the guard." "I often think the world is turned inside out, Emily... that they send some of the sanest people her to me." "Have you read Plato?" "He wrote this great piece, "The allegory of the cave"." "All these people are sitting in rows in a cave, staring at the shadows flickering on the walls." "They're bound to the seats by chains." "For them, the shadows are the only reality." "Here, see the people chained, staring at shadows." "Just like a Multiplex (Cinema)." "But one man struggles of the chains, frees himself and finds the path up to light." "He stands in the sun, and he's enlightened." "That could be the end of the story." "But this man walks back into the cave." "Back in the shadow." "Back to free people." "This man who saw the light and - instead of basking in it - returned to help others, is - according to Plato - the philosopher." "This man is your father." "The Problem with all this shepherding the people out of the darkness, is that the philosopher himself, blinded by the glare of the sun or by grief, can lose his grip on what is real, and what is illusion." "My father's not crazy." "This place is like a cave for many people, Emily, a hiding place from the world." "There's no shame in that." "Life..." "My dad wasn't hiding, you locked up him up." "Emily, your father was a voluntary patient here." " You're Lying." " Why would I lie?" "I was there when..." "When they took him." "Yes, Robert was initially committed, but after a month of observation, he elected to become an in-patient." "Emily, you got to understand..." "Stop saying my name!" "You don't know me." "We don't hold sane people against their will." "Sometimes, people just break." "Even our parents." "Hey!" "Hey..." "What's wrong?" "Where is he?" "Let's go." "So he's gone?" "But where?" "I knew the place." "Whose is this house?" "It was my grandfathers." "We spend the summers here." "The wood swells sometimes in the winter." "Help me." "It's dad's." "We should get a fire going." "If he doesn't come?" "He will." "Why did you agree to come with me?" "So you can put your hand under my T-shirt?" "It's stupid, I know why people do things." " Is that what you believe?" " People lie." "People leave." " I don't know why we came here." " We can go back." " You don't have a clue, do you?" " No." "Once again, I don't understand." "Not everyone lies." "Some just want to help." "Do you know something?" "I don't know why we are here." "You do the fire!" "Arden!" "Arden, come back!" " Dad..." "Good!" "I was looking for you." "I went to pick you up at the sanatorium." "I saw Dr. Golding, Dad." "Why didn't you tell me?" "I wanted to tell you myself." "You let me believe... all this time..." "you left me with those people." "I know." "I don't expect you to ever forgive me this." "I was not good for you." "You need..." "I needed you!" "I was 14." "You said, nothing could separate us." "But you did!" "So you are..." "you are better now?" "I don't know what I am." "I just knew it was time to leave." " I wanted to find you." " Why, why now?" "I don't know." "You don't know...?" "You don't know?" "The god damned Wizard of Oz doesn't know!" "What a joke!" "I shouldn't have wasted my time looking for you." "Emily!" "Emily!" "Swim down into the deep... down, down, down into the deep." "Swim down into the deep..." "I have the sea inside." "I've got you..." "You're OK." "Are you insane?" "Are you fucking insane?" " I'm OK." " You scared the hell out of me!" "You asked me to be here!" "And I care if you live or die!" "I don't wanna go back in there." "I'll be with you." "We can go anytime." "Thank you for coming with me, Arden." "You're welcome." "Come on, introduce me to your father." "Dad, this is Arden." "Arden, he's dad." "Hi!" "He's my boyfriend." "I'll do a change." " Sit down." " Yeah..." "I found some coffee." "It's mother's." "Yeah." "Can I borrow a shirt or something?" "Yeah, sure." "Upstairs, on the right hand side, it's a cupboard." "Help yourself." "June is a good woman." "Sends me letters, let me know how you're getting on." "She thinks you're a weirdo, Emily." "I came looking for you to say I'm sorry, Emily." "For everything." "And that I'm here for you, if you love me." "I only know one thing.." "I'm an old fool..." "And I love you." "There are two things." "And I love you too, dad." " Good morning!" " Good morning!" "Did you sleep well?" " Coffee?" " Yes, please." "Thank you." "I haven't been a very good father, isn't it?" "We're not dead yet." "That's excactly what I was thinking this morning, when I woke up." "So, what do you gonna do?" "I'm gonna stay with June." "You should stay here, do some writing." "Good idea..." "I write a book, "My time in a nuthouse."" "I'd read that." "You can always come and visit, you know?" "Just come anytime you want." "I will." "June will be getting worried about me." "Yes." "What about loverboy?" "He brings me coffee." "If you're ever electrocuted, you'll understand." "There's a sadness in this country..." "In the cities, in the streets, in the fields and in the trees." "A sadness we cannot hide." "It's the fact of leaving the ones we love, the fact of being alone." "Emily!" "But facts are only points of view." "And points of view can change..." "Come on!" "Life happens quickly, like mountains in the background." "And you wake up one day and you don't know how you got there." "And you wonder: "Where have I been?" "How did I get here?"" "And nothing is recognizable... everything is different from the last time you woke." "And you smile in a photograph just because you're happy." "And the voice that is speaking, is suddenly your own."