VILLAGE'S GYM – DAY
Edwin, Leon and Kidal come running into a poorly lit large room, where three middle-aged, serious looking men stare at them from behind a desk. One of them shoots a puzzled glance to an old man holding a mop.
COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Is it them?
GYM CUSTODIAN: I fear it is.
EDWIN: Dear members of the Commission, a very good day to you!
COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Well, Mr...
EDWIN: Bekila, Sir, Edwin Bekila, very pleased to meet you.
COMMISSION PRESIDENT: In your place I'd cut the pleasantries, Mr. Bekila... (looks down at his watch) it is less than a minute to the start of your match.
Edwin is already rummaging into his sack, his two stumped friends look at each other as they start groping into theirs.
EDWIN: Don't worry, sir, nothing in the world could stop us now!
The Commission President exchanges glances with his colleagues as Edwin, Leon and Kidal finish wearing what should look like uniforms and are actually burlap sacks with holes for arms and head and a hand painted Zimbabwe flag.
COMMISSION PRESIDENT: (to the custodian) Is that your athletes' uniform?
GYM CUSTODIAN: I never knew we had one!
The President heaves a sigh as he looks again at his watch.
COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Alright, let's get to work. Is the National Table Tennis Team of Zimbabwe present?
Kidal and Leon glance in astonishment at Edwin as he proudly holds up a still-wrapped table tennis ball and a piece of wood vaguely resembling a racket.
EDWIN: Yes it is, Sir, present in full!
COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Is the Malawi Table Tennis Team present?
A deathly silence falls over the gym. The Commission President glances back at his watch, heaves another sigh.
COMMISSION PRESIDENT: I hereby declare the National Table Tennis Team of Zimbabwe the winner of this round by abandonment of the opponent team.
EDWIN: Yes!!
The Commission stands up and walks away as Edwin starts jumping around, spurting joy from every pore.
KIDAL: Well, that's it?
EDWIN: That's it?! You're a step away from the biggest thing you'll ever accomplish in your life, my friend, don't you get it?
KIDAL: (looks at him for a beat) No.
EDWIN: This is such a historic milestone, and we're so close that I still can't believe it!
Kidal and Leon just glance at each other as Edwin runs for the door...
EXT. VILLAGE'S GYM – DAY
...bursts outside with his arms in the air.
EDWIN: Oh God I can't believe it!
Leon and Kidal walk out the gym, ever more stumped.
EDWIN: It's true, man, we're almost there!
KIDAL: Well, I'm sure we are and I'm so happy for you, but if you don't mind I'd like to know why right now I'm not under my blanket enjoying my mother's ginger cake!
Edwin just stares at him, opens his arms as if that was obvious just as breathing air.
EDWIN: The table tennis tournament, what else?!
KIDAL: Okay. What are we doing in a table tennis tournament? And what kind of tournament is that if nobody else showed up?
LEON: Well, they must have been scared by the way he confronted them yesterday in my restaurant!
KIDAL: What?! Then you knew, too -- somebody's been in your restaurant? (Almost afraid) Did they actually eat something?!
LEON: Well, yes, sure they -- why are you asking?
KIDAL: No wonder they're not here, I wonder if they're still alive!
LEON: Hey, what the hell are you -- and by the way, I just thought we would have cheered for somebody else.
EDWIN: Okay guys, listen, you've just been part of something great! We just moved on in an international sport championship, I mean, as I see it you two should just thank me!
KIDAL: An international championship? I didn't register in no championship!
LEON: Neither did I!
EDWIN: I registered both of you, so what? When you'll be rich and famous, sipping cocktails on a beach you will know who to thank!
Leon shakes his head in disapproval, heaves a long sigh as Kidal just looks Edwin in the eyes.
KIDAL: Here we go again, right?
EDWIN: What?
LEON: You know too well, you and your crazy ideas!
EDWIN: What do you mean, what are you talking about?
KIDAL: He's talking about when you wanted to enlist on a pirate ship!
LEON: Yeah, or when you said you found a way to turn wood into cornmeal!
Edwin frowns like he doesn't know what they're talking about.
KIDAL: Not to mention the alligator you wanted to turn into a vegetarian!
EDWIN: Come on, that was ten years ago, we were just kids!
LEON: That was four months ago, and yeah, if you dropped acting like a kid you would do us all a big favor!
EDWIN: You don't understand, this is a unique chance! Table tennis is the less practiced sport throughout all Africa, our country has a table tennis federation but not even one member, except the three of us.
KIDAL: And how can you know that?
EDWIN: Well, I'm the one delivering their mail!
LEON: You opened up their mail?!
Edwin just spreads his arms.
KIDAL: Oh, man...
EDWIN: Guys, the Olympic Games are in less than five months, we can't miss this chance!
LEON: Chance for what?
EDWIN: To make something of our lives, to just go away from this place!
Leon beckons him to shut up as he turns worried to the grim face on the billboards all around them.
LEON: (whispering) You want to get us in trouble or what?!
KIDAL: And why would you want to go away, what's wrong with this place?
He opens his arms to a wide stretch of stones and dry bushes.
LEON: You've got friends, and a job too!
EDWIN: Oh, sure! My grandpa was a postman, my father was a postman, I had to be a postman and so will have my son, if I'll ever get to have one!
KIDAL: So what? My father dug up ginger roots in the mud, when I was a kid I dreamed of being taken to an orphanage!
EDWIN: What if I wanted to be a journalist? Or an engineer, a jet pilot?
LEON: Come on, you don't even have a license!
EDWIN: That's not the point...
LEON: The point is you should give a cut to your follies!
He locks his eyes into Edwin's, keeps them right there for a long beat.
EDWIN: I'm not crazy, okay, I'm just fed up! I'm fed up of living in this forgotten place and of delivering the mail on my bike for ten dollars a month!
LEON: Edwin, you've got to stop dreaming! I already told you, the only Ferrari you'll ever have is the one on the cap you wear!
EDWIN: Who cares about Ferraris? It's just that sooner or later I'd like to see one that is not in my aunt's old TV. I mean, I know Ferraris are red just 'cause I read it in a paper when I was a kid!
KIDAL: Well, why is that so important?
EDWIN: It isn't, man! All the rest is. We never saw the world, we don't know what life really is, and I'm just tired of that! I am tired of going to sleep even if I'm not sleepy, just 'cause there's nothing to do here! I'm tired of the fact I can't even dream of what I don't have, I can't change what I am and what I do, I'm tired of doing just what I'm allowed and not what I want to!
LEON: Listen Ed --
EDWIN: And you two, you're just as tired, I know that! (Off Leon's look) You're dead tired of working in that restaurant, or rather of not working, since it's always empty, always been and always will! (Points to Kidal) And look at you! You're like a penguin in the desert!
KIDAL: Why, for the mustache?
EDWIN: You don't belong here, you know it!
Leon and Kidal beckon him to keep it low as a policeman appears from behind the gym.
POLICEMAN: Hey, why don't you go back to your work? (Shoots Kidal a look) And you better cut your hair, son!
Kidal stands at attention as the policeman moves away. Edwin cracks a sad smile.
EDWIN: And then you know what's the thing I'm most fed up of? I'm fed up of not being free to say how much I am.
He starts to move away, stops to glance back at his friends.
EDWIN: This is our life, guys, we won't have another just in case we want to give it another try! I just want a chance, just like everybody else, a chance to have something more than what I was born with. Just the chance to have a chance. We don't have one here, and you just know we never will...
He glances around at the tons of dust around them, then at the sun shining behind the rusty billboards.
EDWIN: I just want a chance, nothing more.
He resumes walking. Leon and Kidal share a glance as they slowly start behind him.
KIDAL: Listen, man, it's not that we don't understand you, it's just that...
LEON: Sure, we all would like a better life, but...
KIDAL: I mean, a table tennis tournament!
LEON: We got through one round for a stroke of luck, we could never pass for real players!
KIDAL: We never even held a racket in our hands!
EDWIN: So what?
He turns around, suddenly smiles again as he pops out of his sack a messed up paper calendar.
EDWIN: There's just three teams in our group, we have another a game in Zambia and then the return match right here!
Leon and Kidal just look at him.
KIDAL: Well, why on Earth should we win that one, too?
Edwin's face opens in a wide smile as he puts away the tournament program.
EDWIN: 'Cause Leon's restaurant is the only one in 300 miles!
AFRICAN MUSIC kicks back in as we CUT TO:
EXT. OLYMPIC STADIUM – NIGHT
Head titles roll over the jubilant images of the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, as the representatives of countries from the most disparate corners of the planet parade before the awing audience inside the stadium and the hundreds of millions watching from all around the world:
Americans, Dutch, French, Chinese, Australians, South Africans, Koreans, Italians,
The Games Plan Page 2