INT. SQUAT ENTRYWAY - DAY
An iron gate with a rusted chain and heavy padlock guards the stairway into a dilapidated apartment building.
At the top of a short flight of stairs a dark wooden door, pulled off its hinges, leans against the frame.
Plaster, painted an ugly late-communist shade of yellow, cracks away from crumbling brick walls.
From behind the door, JIRI emerges with a ladder and a toolbelt. He runs a hand through his limp black mohawk, sets the door in its frame, and attaches the lower hinge.
(O.S.) A loud slam followed by muffled cursing.
Jiri jumps down the steps and peers out the gate.
Cobblestones line the floor of the entryway before the gate. The graffiti is a mixture of the political and the obscene - anarchy signs and cunts.
One end of the entryway is open to a courtyard enclosed with a two-story brick wall. At the other, a pair of heavy doors shelter the space from the street.
The doors open and JACK (40, American) steps in, walking with the especial purposefulness of a drunk attempting to look sober. He cradles something inside his motorcycle jacket, and gestures for BESNIK to follow him.
Besnik's dark hair and moustache are streaked with gray, as is the dingy black coat that tops his workman's jumpsuit. He shakes his head, and steps into the entry.
JIRI
Jezis! Drzhobo.
JACK
Are you telling me to shut up? Me? Do you forget who I am?
JIRI
Tak fine: drzhobo, Sensei.
He bows slightly.
JACK
That's more like it. Come, have a drink with me and...
BESNIK
Besnik.
Jack pulls a bottle of Becherovka out of his jacket.
JIRI
OK. Let me finish this.
He turns back to his work, and nods at someone coming down the stairs.
SARA (26, American) sticks her head around the corner.
SARA
I knew that was you, Jack.
JACK
Saranova!
SARA
You're drunk.
JACK
And I'll still kick your ass.
SARA
Ah, yes, drunken master.
JACK
Aw, you speak so sweetly to me, my darling. Sara, me girl, come have a drink with your husband for it is cold in our abode and I must numb myself before I sleep.
Sara steps around Jiri on his ladder and unlocks the padlock.
JACK
This is Besnik, he works across the street, on the restoration.
Jiri hops down from the ladder. Offers Besnik a cigarette.
BESNIK
Yes. I am a mason.
He takes the cigarette, lights it, and then offers one from his own pack to Jiri, and to Sara.
JIRI
What will it be?
Sara declines the cigarette, but Jiri accepts with a nod.
BESNIK
A bank, I'm afraid.
JIRI
That's not good. We're not quite legal yet. The neighbors don't like us. A bank...They will not like a squat across the street.
LATER - DAY
The door at the top of the landing is attached now. It's been painted bright blue.
(O.S.) A loud slam, followed by the sound of several pairs of booted feet.
Police in black riot gear storm the building.
One officer has a bullhorn.
OFFICER WITH BULLHORN
(in Czech)
Police. Open the gate.
Jiri opens his door, sees them, and immediately runs further up into the building.
JIRI
(O.S.)
Polizei!
OFFICER WITH BULLHORN
Have your identity ready.
Another officer with a large pair of bolt cutters snaps the lock. The gate swings forward, and the police rush up the stairs.
Out in the courtyard, Sara and Jack jump from a window onto the top of a low building. Sara reaches behind her and catches a baby. Another couple drops onto the roof, and all of them run across it, and disappear into a neighboring yard.
LATER - NIGHT
KAREL, his hoodie up, drinks a beer and sits on the steps just inside the gate, which is held closed with a new lock. A candle burns beside him.
Jack and Sara return.
Karel hands them keys and pulls out a smoke.
KAREL
We had to get you out. We knew they would be looking for you.
JACK
Why?
KAREL
In Germany, they claimed foreigners in the squats were proof of an international conspiracy. The squat is not illegal, but conspiracy...
He opens the gate.
LATER - NIGHT
The couple with the baby return. HELENA sings a Russian lullaby to the baby in IVAN's arms.
They see the new lock on the gate.
HELENA
Ahoj!
She walks to the courtyard, and from the shadows jumps a SKINHEAD BOY with a bat, followed by two others.
They knock her down, and kick her.
IVAN
Skinheady!
A boy rushes Ivan.
SKINHEAD BOY
(in Czech)
No foreigners in our fatherland.
He turns around and covers the baby with his body as the bat strikes him across the back.
Footsteps on the stairs. Half a dozen anarchists come running down, shouting.
Helena tries push herself up to stand, but one of the skinheads kicks her arms out from under her.
She screams as her arm breaks.
The skinheads run away, taking advantage of the moment it takes to get the padlock open to get away.
LATER - DAY
Jiri, Karel, and Ivan stand with a few other at attention in a martial arts stance, facing Jack. Some of them wear a black gi under their hoodies.
Helena, her arm in a cast, watches.
They go through their forms in pairs, sparring. Jiri and Karel are good. The others are less practiced.
Jack walks through them and corrects their form.
JACK
Stop, stop.
They stop.
He hands a stick to Karel, and lights a cig. Karel swings at him, and he deflects it without even turning to look, then quickly strikes Karel, stopping his fist less than an inch from the kid's nose.
JACK
This is real. Not something to look cool. Do every movement knowing that you are being attacked. Next time, we will be ready. Now, again.
They spar again, this time with renewed focus.
LATER - DAY
Snow drifts into the entryway from the courtyard. Karel and another kid play guitars and thrash their heads, while a girl with pink dredlocks dances. Beer bottles have started to pile up around them.
A pounding on the street door, and it flies open. The police are back. The kids hold up their hands.
LATER - NIGHT
The gate is on the ground, the hinges cut and the frame pulled from the wall.
Anarchists sit on the stairs, holding bats, sticks, and flashlights. Some are in the courtyard. They are on alert.
JIRI
(in Czech)
The fascist police, and their friends the skinheads may force us out before the bank opens, but this is our home.
JACK
Put out those lights. Get ready.
The anarchists disappear into the dark.
LATER - NIGHT
The street door creaks open. Five skinheads come in, quietly. One reaches down and picks up a loose cobblestone. One opens the blue door and Jiri and Jack come out at them.
The skinheads are surrounded.
Someone puts on blaring punk music, and shouts of "skinheady" and "fascisti" punctuate the fighting.
The skinheads make their way back down the stairs, noses bloodied and eyes blackened. More anarchists come at them from the courtyard. Jack gives one a kick that makes him fall and hit his head on the broken gate.
The Skinhead Boy that attacked Ivan tries to help his fallen comrade up, but the anarchists pummel them.
JACK
Let him go!
Reluctantly, everyone backs off and the skinheads limp away.
LATER - NIGHT
Besnik plays a soulful violin, as Jack, Sara, and the others pass a bottle. Snow catches the moonlight in the courtyard.
Karel fingers his guitar.
KAREL
Can you play anything a little more exciting than that gypsy stuff?
SARA
I like it.
KAREL
You Americans. We have a saying:
(in Czech)
The only thing stranger than a foreigner is a gypsy.
SARA
What do you mean by that?
KAREL
I just want some good punk music!
The other anarchists shout in agreement.
BESNIK
So, get up here!
Karel stands beside him, and Besnik begins strumming his violin like a guitar.
LATER - NIGHT
It's still and quiet. The street door opens, and the Skinhead Boy backs into the entryway, dragging a body.
He lays it beside the broken gate. It's Besnik, unconscious or worse. Blood shines in matted hair on his forehead.
The Skinhead Boy pulls out a gun, and hides around the corner in the courtyard.
Jack and Sara come down the stairs.
JACK
Wait, I have to piss.
SARA
You drunk.
JACK
Yup.
She crosses her arms, and notices Besnik on the ground.
Jack unbuttons his pants as he walks.
Sara bends down, touching Besnik's forehead.
SARA
Jack. Oh no.
When Jack turns to see what's wrong, Skinhead Boy steps out.
SKINHEAD BOY
(in Czech)
Death to gypsies and foreigners.
Jack looks down the barrel of the gun.
Gunfire. Blackness.
Sara screams.
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