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FADE IN:

INT. WARSAW (ARCHIVE) - DAY

Black and white. Street scene. People toing and froing. A

man rattles by.

SUPERIMPOSE CAPTION:

WARSAW 1939

INT. STUDIO, RADIO STATION, WARSAW - DAY

WLADYSLAV SZPILMAN plays Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor,

Posthumous. He's twenty-eight years old, elegant and

handsome.

In the booth, separated from the studio by a glass screen,

an engineer, wearing collar and tie, monitors the broadcast.

Behind him, a window to the street with strips of paper

taped on it as protection against blast.

Without warning, a bomb drops nearby, then another and

another. The whole building shudders alarmingly and the

window in the booth shatters.

The engineer and Szpilman exchange a look as a man enters

the booth and talks urgently to the Engineer, then goes.

The engineer makes a 'cut-throat' gesture, but Szpilman

shakes his head, determined to play on.

He plays, then glances at the booth. The engineer has gone,

but through the shattered window he sees fires raging.

Very near, a loud, terrifying explosion. The reverberations

cause plaster to flake and dust to trickle down over his

face.

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