All language subtitles for Elenya (Steve Gough, 1992)

Dear Julie Price,
thank you for your letter.

I'm afraid it took a
long time to reach me.

The post in my part of Italy is bad.

I'm so glad your Uncle
Sidney thought of me,

although he knows I didn't have much to do

with village life during the war.

Still, I suppose that title
covers a lot of ground.

Of course I'll try to
help, but I must tell you

that I haven't thought
of Wales for many years,

and there's little chance
that I'll ever go back.

I expect
that most of you will have

heard already today the news that

the British Army has been in action in...

See, Ellie, I told you we'd do it.

Yes.

But in
contact with German troops

for the first time.

The release of this news, which
has been a closely guarded

secret for several days,
automatically discloses the fact

that a force of British troops
has taken its place in a

sector of the Maginot line,
side-by-side with the French,

and face-to-face with the Germans.

It has been my good fortune to see

something of the troops involved.

So far, they have represented
country regiments,

with detachments and technical experts

from other Army formations
on special duty.

Here, Dad.

- Here, it's yours now!

Go on!

You're strong enough, that's it!

Nice and tight.

Go on!

Oh, Christ!

We lived in the
cottage near the end of the

bridle path to the Williams' farm.

It seemed so big at the time.

We'll say
nothing to Auntie Maggie.

There was me, my father,

and Auntie Maggie in those days.

- You should've seen the dawn, Maggie.

- Your breakfast's cold on the table.

My mother had gone by then.

And all around us, there were the woods.

This is my home!

And this is my
home and this is Ellie's home!

She's Ellie's mother!

- Don't you talk about her again.

You always think of her.

Why do you never think of your sister?

Why do you never remember me?

And it is this fact which has...

Of the younger generation...

That it has found our young
folk more ready to serve

their country in arms,
in its service of a cause

than ever they were or could
have been roused to be,

for any imperial interest.

I'm glad your Uncle Sidney

encouraged you to write.

He sold the house when
Maggie died a few years ago.

I don't know if anyone's living there now.

You know more about her
as an old lady than I do.

We lived a simple life then.

We heard about people in the village

like Albert Thomas joining up.

Maggie blamed Dad for being out of work,

but people forget good
carpentry when war comes along.

Everything was easier when
my father was at home.

I remember the day he left.

The first lie he ever told me.

- It's just a few weeks, Ellie.

Until I find the work.

Then I'll be back.

Maggie loves you, Ellie.

Deep down.

Try and love her back a little, eh?

Promise you'll try?

- I promise.

- I'll be back before you know it.

I'll write once I'm set.

- After that, the house was different.

Dark and still.

Maggie and I weren't great talkers.

He forgot his cap.

- Glyn won't come back now.

I don't know
if any of this is helpful.

My memory isn't good.

I remember kites.

Sitting at night in my window.

Cutting up newspaper
articles next to the fire.

Most of all, the woods
and the paths I made.

Narrow and winding, so
nobody could follow.

- You lay a good fire.

Just like Glyn.

Could I have a
candle, just for tonight?

- I'm not your father, Elenya.

It's time you got used to the dark.

I went to school
with your Uncle Sidney.

There were two classes then.

I wasn't much of a pupil,
always late for everything,

and they teased me because of my name,

and because I didn't have a proper family.

- Hurry along now, children!

Those bombs could be real this time.

Off you go.

Come along, Elenya.

Good girl.

Elenya is an unusual name.

Italian.

Greek, maybe.

Well, she's certainly
a strange little thing.

But then, living without your real mother

can't be easy, can it?

Have you heard from your father yet?

Well, you'll have news soon, I'm sure.

- Will the war get to us?

- Don't be silly, they
don't have wars here.

- Whatever are you doing?

I'm late already.

I've left carrots in the sink,
peel them properly this time.

- I hate you.

I hate you, I hate you.

- Ellie!

Ellie!

I shouted.
- Didn't hear.

- Liar.
- So?

- My dad lets me label the
medicines now, even the poisons.

Want to come and see?

I think
Sidney had an eye for me.

Well, I shouldn't exaggerate,
we were very young then.

I took advantage from
the start, I'm afraid.

- Look.

Up there.

It's strychnine and cyanide.

Dad keeps them all on
top so no one can touch.

Look.

Copper sulfates.

Little blue crystals.

You can grow them like
plants, if you want.

Prettier than jewelry.

Maybe he'll join up.

- Who?
- Your dad.

They'd stop teasing you then.

Stands to reason, if he
killed lots of Germans,

he'd be a hero.

- I told you never to touch the chemicals!

Who are you?
- She's Ellie, she's...

Be quiet!

Oh, you're the Italian, aren't you?

Out.

Out of this house,
before I call the police!

Sidney is a
very loyal, kind man.

In the end, he did turn
against me because he had to.

He didn't know everything.

What happened was
perfectly natural in war.

And, of course, I was a foreigner.

War was great fun at first.

We all loved the urgency of it all.

It was dangerous, exciting.

But we got bored with practicing.

We longed for a real plane to come along.

- I wish I could draw like that.

- Like what?

- So where's your dad gone then, Ellie?

To find another foreign lady?

- Elenya, Phil!

I'll see you after school.

- Why don't you run away?

- I promised my dad
I'd love Auntie Maggie.

- You're funny.

- Why'd you do that?

- 'Cause you're a girl and I'm a boy.

- That's two less Germans
for us to kill, thank God.

You don't know what war is.

Elenya?

Elenya!

- Sweet Jesus, make me love her.

- Where have you been?

- Nowhere.

Is that where all
that mud's come from, nowhere?

- I went back to the field,

to see what they'd found in the wreckage.

- Well?

- They were all burnt alive.

- They should've been
all wrung out yesterday.

- No, I don't remember his
other name, I'm afraid.

I don't think I was ever told.

Everyone must wonder why I did it.

Maybe it was just instinct.

But between you and me, there
was more to it than that.

Even at the start.

Please don't be dead.

Shh.

What's your name?

Elenya.

Me, Elenya.

You.

Your name?

- Franz.

Franz.

- Franz.

Where were you this time?

Selfish, deceitful, just
like that slut, your mother!

- Let go of me, I don't belong to you!

I don't even like you, I hate you!

Do you hear?

And Dad.

Both of us hate you,
we've hated you for years.

It was early summer.

Very warm and sunny.

And I had my secret.

I'm sorry.

I'm trying not to hurt!

I could smell damp and decay all around.

I decided I'd have to do
a lot more to save him.

That day, my new life began.

I became a liar and a thief.

Sorry about yesterday.

Do you like them?

- Thank you, Elenya.

- I really do love you, Maggie.

Both of us.

Both of us love you so much.

I'll turn around, if you like.

Go on, dress.

My eyes are quite shut.

We must bury everything!

I'm sorry.

I'm gonna keep you here,

until the war is over.

You'll be safer here.

Do you know any English, Franz?

- Hm?

- English.

English words.

Suppose not.

Here, you have the rest.

Don't worry.

I won't leave you.

I'll be back.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

- Look.

Oranges.

Sidney came again while you were out.

Had them wrapped under his coat.

Lord knows where he got them.

I didn't dare ask.

This is your treat.

You've been so good today.

Here.

You have the other one.

- People asked me afterwards,

"Didn't you know about hospitals
and prisoner of war camps?"

I think I must have.

But in the wood, it was different.

Even school didn't exist.

This is your home, isn't it?

You live by the sea?

A lake!

You live by a lake.

I don't understand.

I don't understand!

A week had passed.

Flecks of blood in the white of his eyes.

How his leg bent out next to his stick.

I can still remember those things.

As I walked home, I suddenly saw

my father again in the cottage.

The first time I'd thought
about him in a month.

You should have made her stay!

How could I make her stay?

We know she had to leave!

Yes and I've
had to bring Ellie up!

I didn't ask you to do this.

How can you talk
about her again in this house?

She's her mother.

- Running away, a child just
born, call that being a mother?

Little Ellie.

- You always think of her.

Why do you never think of your sister?

Why do you never remember me?

A dark mustache, you say?

I know who it was.

Evan Williams.

He had a dark mustache.

Hung himself from the big beech.

10 years ago.

Let that be a lesson to you

for wandering about in the night.

- Maggie didn't mean it.

It's a target for the
soldiers, no more than that.

Maggie used
to terrorize us both.

But all my work in the
wood made me tougher.

Remember, my father was
gone without a trace.

On my own, I had to stand up to her now.

Where are they?

What have you done with them?

- You're mad, you've gone mad,
what're you talking about?

- They've gone, Dad's things!

His cap, everything!

- Glyn's never coming back, do you hear?

Never!

- It was a trick.

All of it.

- Whatever do you mean?

- There was no job for him to find.

There never was.

It was all a lie.

Say it.

- Your father went off to find her.

How can I be expected to
take care of you forever?

I told him as much!

But I never thought
he'd go through with it.

How can he find her after all these years?

This came last week.

He's fighting in France.

- Fool of a man.

Couldn't face coming
back to me without her.

- Sweet Jesus.

Keep me away from the woods.

A month or six weeks had gone
by, local defense volunteers

tramped the lanes with rusty bayonets.

Jam making was advised for the women.

Patriotism in full flight.

You must be thinking this was when

I should've left him for good.

I think I stayed away just a week.

Elenya!

Elenya!

Elenya?

Elenya!

- Elenya!

Elenya!

Oh, God.

Infection.

Sulphonamide.

Sulphonamide.

Sulphonamide.

- I'll be back.

"Sulphonamide."

I'll be back.

Very soon.

- Why?

- Because you came.

You came here, to me.

Auntie Maggie?

- I thought you'd run away.

Autumn was near,
the wood sounded different.

You could see further through the trees.

How long before the end?

Far away, the war went on.

One day, it even came back to our village.

Sidney was in his element.

- Must've tried to dump his
bombs, before he went down.

Didn't care who they fell on.

Bloody Nazi animal.

You know what Germans say when they kill?

They say, like the bark of a dog.

I read that in a book.

- And you'd know all about
that, wouldn't you, Ellie?

Being a foreigner.

Is this stuff any use?

I can't remember the feeling of it now.

If I did, I'd tell you the secret.

Although, it doesn't have
much to do with the war.

I can picture it.

But I can't see me in
the picture, somehow.

Dad's clothes.

- Huh?

Good?

Like?

Huh?

- Do you love her very much?

Her!

Your fancy woman!

Even when she's being
cruel she's frightened.

She knows I'll leave one day,
then she'll be all on her own.

She'll have no one, but
I can't mind that, can I?

I can't live for her,
I've got to live for me.

One day, I'll take you there.

When the war is over.

The glass necklace was the only thing

that came from the woods
and into the house,

but I didn't keep it for long.

I didn't want to remember that day.

- It's your father, my dear.

Three whole weeks ago.

No!

No!

- School tomorrow, thank goodness.

We must learn to forget him, you see.

It's quite simple, just put
him right out of our heads.

- Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

I'm gonna stab Evan Williams.

I'm gonna stab Evan Williams to death.

I'm gonna stab Evan Williams.

I'm gonna stab Evan Williams to death.

The end of the holidays.

Three months after he came.

- My dad says whenever
you want to come round

for afternoon tea, you'd be welcome.

- Thanks.

- My Auntie Mabel went when I was two.

- For afternoon tea?

- No, I mean died.

- Oh.

- Mind you, I don't remember her.

I've only got this picture
of her sitting on a beach.

- See those big trees over there?

That's where I go.

What do you mean?

- His name is Evan Williams,
you remember, Sidney?

Hung himself from the
big beech, 10 years ago.

- You're strange, you are, you know.

You've really gone funny.

- First frost.

Feel it in my bones.

- No, no!

I'm sorry.

Look.

See what I've brought you.

Sorry.

Sorry.

I thought I'd lost this cup forever.

When you turn it, you see
horsemen riding through the woods.

I won't be a minute.

- Can we come, too?

- What did you tell him?

- It's a deserter.

You're keeping a deserter.

My dad was right about you.

All right.

- Who are you?

You're a deserter, aren't you?

A bloody rotten coward,
that's what you are.

Look.

- A foreigner?

A German?

Looks like you were in a bit of a scrap.

Does it hurt then, hm?

Nazi?

Does it hurt then, hm?

Or there, Nazi?

There, Na...

Yes, I stayed with him.

The night was very dark, I lay beside him.

I remember his breathing,
slow and mechanical.

In the end, I must've slept.

Then the war really came to our village.

I remember telling myself not to worry.

No one would find us.

Who would bother?

I was wrong, of course, they came.

They'd been waiting long enough.

They're coming.

- Sorry.

- Franz!

Franz!

- Come back!

- Franz!

- My life is over, you see.

Quite over.

Foreigner, traitor, slut!

- Is he dead?

I knew he was dead.

Yes, I've been quite successful.

My life in Italy is very busy
and I don't dwell in the past.

But your letter has
reminded me of moments,

sometimes at night, when I
open my eyes and see him again.

- You'll like your time in the town.

It's different, of course.

It's full of strangers.

But the Howells are a nice family.

You'll soon settle down.

Time heals.

- Is it the war, all this?

- You loved him very much, didn't you?

It's not just the war, Elenya.

There's always pain.

- No one ever told me where he was buried.

But I do know where I last saw him alive.

Sometimes I think of going there.

I killed him.

Quite thoughtlessly,
but with real affection.

That's my story.

Now you can judge me.

I love you.

I love you.

I really hope all this helps you.

Send my love to your uncle.

With best wishes, Alenya Howell.