ONE CHILD BORN Treatment by Stuart Creque

ONE CHILD BORN

Stuart Creque

Drama

Synopsis

LAURENT, Rwandan Tutsi farmer waits on his front porch as the midwife MADAME KAGAME attends to his wife SYLVIE’S labor inside. His teenage son MICHEL runs home and warns him of a Hutu mob approaching to kill the family. Because Sylvie can’t travel, Laurent tells her, Mme. Kagame, Michel and their youngest child CHARLOTTE to hide in the crawlspace through the trapdoor under the bed. But Michel can’t find Charlotte in the house.

Laurent orders Michel to find Charlotte and take her into the forest to hide. He puts his wife and the midwife into the crawlspace, moves the bed back over the trapdoor, and goes to wait on the porch.

Under the house, Mme. Kagame warns Sylvie that she must be absolutely silent. She gives her a piece of leather to bite on when the pain gets tough and tells her that a squeeze on her wrist will be her signal to push as hard as she can.

When the mob arrives, Laurent tells its leader, his former friend PAUL, that his wife and children have gone to Madame Kagame’s house. The mob searches the house and finds no one. Paul orders the mob to set fire to the house. He then tells Laurent that he will spare him from being hacked to death by the mob’s machetes – and stabs Laurent to death.

Michel and Charlotte hide under dirt and leaves on the forest floor. They hear the sounds of men passing by and stay still and silent. Night falls, the sun rises, the day passes and so does another night.

Michel leads Charlotte back toward the house. He leaves her at the tree line and goes to the burned wreckage, passing his father’s charred skeleton as he goes inside. He pushes the smoldering bed aside and opens the trapdoor. Mme. Kagame passes his baby brother up to him and then helps Sylvie up. Michel asks his mother for the baby’s name: “Laurent,” she replies.

They leave the house – Charlotte sees her mother and runs to her. Then the family disappears into the forest.