Excerpts from “THE RAFT” by JULES VERNE
JOANA
This Portuguese, whose name was Magalhaës, followed the trade of timber-felling, and his settlement, then recently formed, extended for about half a mile along the bank of the river. There, hospitable as he was, like all the Portuguese of the old race, Magalhaës lived with his daughter Yaquita, who after the death of her mother had taken charge of his household. Magalhaës was an excellent worker, inured to fatigue, but lacking education. If he understood the management of the few slaves whom he owned, and the dozen Indians whom he hired, he showed himself much less apt in the various external requirements of his trade. It was under these circumstances that Joam Garral, then twenty-two years old, found himself one day in the presence of Magalhaës. He had arrived in the country at the limit both of his strength and his resources. Magalhaës had found him half-dead with hunger and fatigue in the neighboring forest. The Portuguese had an excellent heart; he did not ask the unknown where he came from, but what he wanted.
ARACI
He had a good heart but he exploited the Indians … and he had slaves!
JOANA (OFF)
The first jobs should start without delay… It was a matter of cutting down half a square mile of forest and transforming the trees of many centuries that lay on the ground into a raft, and filling it with everything that is part of a family of farmers, bosses and servants, their houses, their malocas, their huts.
JOANA (OFF)
The raft, built by Joam Garral and whose mission was to take daughter Minha and Manoel to get married in Belém, did not take long to establish itself in the current between the countless and picturesque islands … it was curious to see.
With his eyes closed, Joana lets herself fall asleep.
42 EXT. DAY. JOANA'S DREAM. JANGADA 1852. BALCONY * Joana's dream scenes are reconstructed from the book by Jules Verne and played in décors and dreamlike environments, with a period wardrobe. The scene takes place in 1852, on the veranda of a house built on a raft on the Amazon River.
JOANA (VOZ OFF) - “On the raft, in the distance, behind the giant bushes, the huts of the blacks and the huts of the Indians were hidden. From the bank of the river, only the house surrounded by the forest could be seen. There, animals abounded ”. Joana happily enters the field. JOANA- I am so happy to feel everyone happy around me!Joana looks back at Araci and Xavier who follow her. JOANA - (to Araci) So, grandma, do you know a more pleasant way to travel? ARACI - No, my dear. In fact, this is traveling with your own home! XAVIER - And without any fatigue. We could travel hundreds of miles like that! JOANA - Our great river is really beautiful! (turning to Xavier) So you will not regret traveling with us… Do you not think that we have embarked on an island? Xavier tries to imagine the floating island. JOANA - Only … this island, sir, we built it with our hands! I have a right to be proud of her! XAVIER - Yes, and I absolve you of the feeling of pride. In fact, I would not allow myself to scold you in front of your grandmother! JOANA - On the contrary! You have to teach your grandmother to blame me when I deserve it! She is too lenient with me, who has her faults there. Joana leaves the field and lets see the landscape in motion.
JOANA - (Read aloud) Benito and Minha, grandchildren of the old Portuguese, should be worthy of their grandfather. The girl became charming. She never left the farm. Raised in that pure and healthy environment, in the midst of the beautiful nature of the tropical regions, the education given by the mother, the instruction received from the father were sufficient for her. What would she have to learn more in a convent in Manaus or Belém? Where would she find the best examples of all personal virtues? ”