Mr. Pip

Matilda Naimo:
[opening lines, voiceover] Our teachers told us that the place we lived was called Bougainville, part of a small group of South Pacific islands owned by Papua New Guinea. But according to my mother, our island was a woman and we lived in her heart. She said no one could own that. But Papua New Guinea sold our heart to a mining company.

Matilda Naimo:
[voiceover, referring to Mr. Watts] We thought Pop-Eye's tribe had forgotten him. Or that maybe he was being punished for an old crime.

Mr. Watts:
[about abandoned schoolroom] I want this to be a place of light, no matter what happens. So, the first thing we must do is clear this space for learning.

Dolores Naimo:
That's a white man's name. No, Matilda, you heard wrong. Pop-Eye is the last white man around here. There's no others.

Matilda Naimo:
But Mr Watts says there is.

Dolores Naimo:
Hey, Leola! [in Papuan] You heard of some white man called Mr. Dickens around here?

Leola:
[in Papuan] No, but I do know some Mr. D*ckheads. [everybody laughs] You see them everywhere!

Dolores Naimo:
[in Papuan] Well, Matilda, if you see this Mr. Dickens, tell him to come fix our generator.

Mrs. Kauona:
[in Papuan] And tell him he can stay at my place, if he's got some rice!

Leola:
[in Papuan] What would you do with a white husband?

Dolores Naimo:
So he stole his mother's pork pie?

Matilda Naimo:
Pip's an orphan. He lives with his sister. Brought him up by hand.

Dolores Naimo:
Sounds like she needed to use her hand on him a little more.

Matilda Naimo:
My Dad's in Australia.

Pip:
Do you miss him? [pause] I guess I'm lucky.

Matilda Naimo:
Why?

Pip:
I never knew my father long enough to miss him.

Daniel:
What's it like to be white?

Mr. Watts:
You mean what's it like to be white, or what's it like to be white here?

Matilda Naimo:
Both.

Mr. Watts:
A bit like what the last mammoth must have felt, I suppose. It's lonely, at times. I don't know. What's it like being black?

Daniel:
Normal.

Matilda Naimo:
We only feel black around white people.

Mr. Watts:
Yes, well, I'd say the same is true for me.

Dolores Naimo:
I know you kids have been hearing some story from Mr Watts, but I'm here to tell you that stories have a job to do. They can't just lie around like lazybone dogs. They have to teach you something. That's why I brought a book... the Good Book. [holds up the Bible] When the missionaries came, they taught us to believe in God. But when we asked to see God, they wouldn't introduce him to us. So many people prefer to live by the wisdom of the crabs and the firefish that is shaped like the Southern Star. You must believe in something. 'God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.' There is no sentence more beautiful in the world than that one.

Matilda Naimo:
Is it strange to feel like I know Pip? I mean... really know him?

Mr. Watts:
I think that is probably the greatest compliment you could pay Mr. Dickens.

Matilda Naimo:
Do you know him too?

Mr. Watts:
My Pip is probably not exactly the same as your Pip, but yes, I believe I do.

Dolores Naimo:
Do you believe in the Devil, Matilda?

Matilda Naimo:
Mr Watts says that the Devil is just a symbol, not living flesh.

Dolores Naimo:
Nor is his Pip.

Matilda Naimo:
But you can't hear the Devil's voice. You can hear Pip's.

Dolores Naimo:
That's it. You're not going back to the school anymore.

Matilda Naimo:
Why? So I can be dumb like you?

Dolores Naimo:
My daughter, my lovely Matilda, says she doesn't believe in the Devil. She believes in Pip!

Mr. Watts:
Well, Mrs. Naimo, what if I were to say to you that on the page, Pip and the Devil have the same status? Each one strikes out on their own, each one has the chance to make their own mistakes...

Dolores Naimo:
And to abandon his family? How will Pip even know if he's made a mistake? If there is no God and no Devil, how will he know what's right from wrong? [addressing kids in schoolroom] Mr Watts here thinks he can know all things, but for the rest of us people - and that includes you, my beautiful flower, Matilda - pack the teaching of the Good Book into your person. That way, you kids will be able to save Pop-Eye here, because I'm not going to.

Mr. Watts:
Thank you, Mrs. Naimo, for such an illuminating lesson on the relationship between good and evil. Once again, you've given us much food for thought.

Mr. Watts:
[seeing Matilda's seashell writing of "PIP" on beach] A shrine... Pip in the Pacific... Well, why not? Great Expectations doesn't tell the whole of Pip's life.

PNG Lieutenant:
I will give you one more chance. Bring me this man Pip, or I will burn it all.

Mr. Watts:
Please, sir! The man you're looking for is... He's a fiction. He's a character out of a book.

PNG Lieutenant:
No. You will speak when I ask you. I am not interested in any more of your lies.

Mr. Watts:
[during Grace's burial] Grace lived in a beautiful big house in London. She lived in one part of the house, I lived in the other. But... it was very hard not to notice Grace. I'd never seen anyone so black with teeth so white.

Mr. Watts:
[during Grace's burial] We had a room in the middle of the house, between us, for Sarah. We filled this room with our thoughts, our memories, our histories, which we'd take it in turns to write it on the wall. And Grace traced Sarah's lineage from her all the way back to a flying fish.

Grace's grandmother:
Was I on this wall?

Mr. Watts:
Uh, yes, I believe you were.

Mr. Watts:
We've all lost a lot in recent times. And those losses, I think we should use them... to remind ourselves of the things that we could never lose... our minds and our imaginations.

Christopher:
Can anyone be a gentleman?

Mr. Watts:
Yes, they can.

Violet:
Even a poor person?

Mr. Watts:
Absolutely a poor person can be a gentleman. A gentleman... a gentleman is someone who never forgets their manners, no matter what the situation is, no matter how terrible, how awful. Money and social standing have got nothing to do with it. A gentleman always tries to do the right thing.

Herbert Pocket:
[referring to Matilda] Who was that, Handel?

Pip:
Nobody.

Matilda Naimo:
[interjecting indignantly] His name is Pip. [to Pip] Or have you abandoned that too, along with Joe and everyone else?

Pip:
And you're so much better? I'm sorry, Matilda, but you have no idea what is expected of a gentleman.

Matilda Naimo:
I do. I just don't see one here.

Joseph Naimo:
[scene shows multiple birthday cakes on table] Here we are. You've got some eating to catch up on. I bought you birthday cakes for every one I've missed. [both enter a childish-looking bedroom] Guess you were still a little girl in my head.

Mrs. June Watts:
The Queen of bloody Sheba. I didn't think about Grace much. I didn't give her nearly enough thought. She was always laughing. It was like living next door to someone who was permanently drunk. Couldn't imagine him on her island. What was he like... when you last saw him?

Matilda Naimo:
He was a gentleman. He was always a gentleman, Mrs. Watts.