The Keeping Room Page #2

Synopsis: Left without men in the dying days of the American Civil War, three Southern women - two sisters and one African-American slave - must fight to defend their home and themselves from two rogue soldiers who have broken off from the fast-approaching Union Army.
Genre: Drama, Western
Director(s): Daniel Barber
Production: Drafthouse Films
  3 wins & 8 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.0
Metacritic:
58
Rotten Tomatoes:
74%
R
Year:
2014
95 min
$27,166
Website
631 Views


The three women barely use the big house now. This room

is their home. If it were big enough, they’d probably

sleep here.

Augusta sits at the head of the table, by the door, and

Louise sits next to her, playing with a SMALL DOLL.

Mad tends to a POT on the fire.

LOUISE:

Heard you shoot.

Mad gives Louise a look.

LOUISE (CONT’D)

...what was it?

Augusta doesn’t want to answer.

AUGUSTA:

Somethin’ small n’ fast.

LOUISE:

Rabbit?

AUGUSTA:

Maybe.

Louise thinks about how good that would taste.

They all do.

(CONTINUED)

6.

AUGUSTA (CONT’D)

Don’t even know if it was really there.

She remembers it for a moment.

AUGUSTA (CONT'D)

But once that gun goes off everythin’

livin’ is gone.

LOUISE:

Why’s it hard when the only thing there’s

you and the rabbit?

Mad spoons TURNIPS and CARROTS into a LARGE BOWL.

MAD:

The woods is big and the rabbit’s small.

She walks over to the table and places it next to a plate

of GROUND HOMINY.

LOUISE:

Can I start?

MAD:

We all goin’ to.

LOUISE:

I was asking my sister.

AUGUSTA:

(gently)

No need to talk to Mad like that.

LOUISE:

But she’s --

AUGUSTA:

(firmer)

Thought you wanted to eat.

Louise is about to say something else, but she gives in

and looks down at her plate.

Mad SITS. And with that, the three women dig in.

They eat with their hands. They’ve given up praying.

Over this --

Mad HUMS a haunting tune that takes us to --

7.

EXT. KEEPING ROOM - NIGHT

The three women EMERGE from the door, the lamps from the

windows in hand.

Augusta, RIFLE in her other hand, leads the way as the

women take the walkway to the BACK DOOR of the Farmhouse.

Augusta opens the door and they head in.

INT. FARMHOUSE / BACK HALL - CONTINUOUS

Lit only by the OIL LAMPS, the women cautiously make

their way through the dark house.

The only room they use now is the bedroom; the rest of

the house has become a stranger to them. It’s nearly

empty now, anyway. They’ve sold or traded most everything

that was in it.

As they walk, Mad continues to HUM. It warms their

journey towards sleep.

INT. FARMHOUSE / STAIRCASE - CONTINUOUS

They climb the stairs.

Augusta joins Mad, she knows the SONG well. It gets them

where they need to go.

INT. FARMHOUSE / HALLWAY - NIGHT

From the far end of the hall, the women move towards us.

Still they HUM.

INT. FARMHOUSE / BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS

They’ve reached their destination.

They all share this one room.

There is a LARGER BED in the middle of the room, and then

a SMALLER BED has been pulled in that lies perpendicular

on the wall at the foot of the other.

Mad, the last to enter, closes the door. They’ve

fashioned a SLAT OF WOOD that goes across the door and

hooks into two BRACES OF WOOD on either side.

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Julia Hart

Julia Hart is a writer and director, known for The Keeping Room (2014), Miss Stevens (2016) and Madame X. more…

All Julia Hart scripts | Julia Hart Scripts

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Submitted by aviv on November 14, 2016

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