Rented Silence
Logline
Experience post-WWll Africa through the eyes of characters who unearth the painful secrets of those times.
Genre
Drama, Memoir,,Historical Fiction
Short Summary
Two premature newborns were buried alive in a compost pit, covered with corn husks and left to die. A hungry wild dog, saliva flowing, stood impatiently over the mound. What could provoke a mother to bury her twin babies alive?
To give voice you must first survive and one baby survived to tell the truth about inhumanity to people of color like herself.
Setting
Zululand, South Africa
Based on a True Story
Yes
Plot - Premise
,The emotional venerability of a "mom's" heart.,Tragedy
Plot - Other Elements
Meaningful Message
Mature Audience Themes
Sexual Abuse
Main Character Details
Name: Shiya
Age: newborn to adulthood
Gender: Female
Role: Emotional
Key Traits: Aspiring, Educated, Heroic, Selfless
Additional Character Details
Name: Anele
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Role: Mentor
Key Traits: Narcissistic, Power-hungry, Unapologetic, Villainous, Aggressive, Charming,Aspiring,Empathetic
Additional Character Details
Name: Lord Hallworthy
Age: 60
Gender: Male
Role: antagonist
Key Traits: Greedy, Manipulative, Narcissistic, Unapologetic,Aspiring
Additional Character Details
Name: Twazeli - witch doctor
Age: 90
Gender: Male
Role: skeptic
Key Traits: Outspoken
Development Pitch
South African Wilderness, 1945 - Night. In the pre-dawn dark, a black woman, Anele, 30's runs in terror. The runaway slave's clothing is dirty and torn. A sound of chasing hoofbeats follows. But her pursuers haven't seen her yet. She clambers over a rocky formation. Desperate she ducks into a cave. It's pitch black inside. The hoofbeats, and voices, get louder until they are directly overhead, The ground trembles, loose dirt, and rock caused by the horses crumbles down on her. Anele doesn't breath. Finally, the pursuers move on. Anele creeps out of her sanctuary to find drinking water. A vicious growl stops her dead in her tracks. A wild dog, about to dig into the ground into a small hole filled with corn husks, bares its teeth. Anele backs away ... until she hears a cry coming from under the ground. A baby! A fierce urgency possesses her. She hurls rocks at the dog until it runs off yelping. Anele runs to the source of the crying, digs with her hands and pulls out a newborn, covered in afterbirth and dirt ...