LIFEART STUDIO

5/01

(Wednesday evening)

A special dinner party is taking place in the center of the village. Rows of wooden tables and chairs populated by young men, women, tennagers and children of all ages. All pure Aryan looking. Everyone seems to be wearing a similar simple outfit, but in different colors.The place is decorated with flowers, and there are lights stretched across the space giving it a festive look. Some German-Shepard dogs run around the tables playfully. On the tables there is a rich offering of vegetarian food, and clear water. No alcohol is served, and yet some of the men and women seem to be under the influence of some substance that makes the celebration loud and fun. Others seem to be more hesitant when they talk - as if they are afraid to say something wrong, although we’re not really sure why.

Leo and Claudia are seated in the center of one side of the party table (the furthest yet directly in front of where Peter is seated) and are enjoying the sights and the food. The place is definitely different than anything she’s ever experienced, and Claudia is taking all of that in with curiosity. 

Then Peter stands up, with a smile and with ease, and everyone turns silent in an instant. Although only 50 and in great physical shape Peter is by far the oldest person we’ve seen in the village yet. He is wearing a similar simple outfit to the ones worn by everyone else, only his is the only one colored white. 

Peter gives a short speech in German, welcoming all the newcomers that arrived this summer - for the great cheers of the table. He then continues by referencing some scientific theories of genetics and Darwinian evolution, specifically promoting the idea of the Nordic race as a key social, group-responsible for human development (He mentions in passing Madison Grant’s 1916 book: “The Passing of the Great Race”?). 

People around seem to be listening intently - as if listening to the words of their favorite preacher in church on Sunday - some with eyes closed in self reflection, some simply looking directly at Peter in admiration, and others that repeat some of Peter’s endings of sentences - like in a hymn. 

Claudia is confused about some of the things Peter talks about… “Social group-responsible Nordic race… what?” Peter is a bit far from where she’s sitting, and with all the crowd remarks she couldn't hear everything he said.

This all goes by too quickly, Peter finishing his short speech, the crowd cheers, and Leo is talking with some of his friends seated to his side. Claudia has no one to discuss this at the moment and the party is back to normal.

5/02

Back to Nick and Shena: we left them at the end of episode 4 surrounded by angry villagers, just as we - the audience - realize they’ve reached the wrong village.

After some stressful and loud minutes Shena is able to calm the villagers down by speaking in their native tongue. She realizes these are not Spiti Valley villagers, and they are taken to a small hutt as prisoners, till the village chief arrives and decides what to do with them. 

5/03

(Thursday Morning)

Claudia and Leo are strolling the village. The place is beautiful, normal and weird at the same time. Leo explains - that’s the main residents area ; a “health & spa club” ; here’s where we have wedding ceremonies ; this is Peter’s compound ; over there is where we grow all the food consumed in the village ; and this (walking by it) is the main office - the only place where one can make a phone call out of the village, since cell-phone reception is very very poor anywhere around here.

Leo continues telling her of his years in the village, how he arrived with his sister at 16 following their mother’s tails of her years at the village giving birth to the two of them when she was young. 

They discuss how both grew up without a father. It’s an important realization to the both of them and brings them even closer to each other than before. They go into a warm embrace. 

Above them, in a separate structure rising high above the village, Peter is at his bedroom balcony. He’s following Claudia intently and upon seeing how close Claudia and Leo are, he seems to be driven mad from jealousy.

5/04

Nick and Shena in a dark shack. The door opens and they are walked to another hutt to meet the village Chief. It is now pretty clear to both that they are not in the right village.

Shena tells the chief in his native tongue that they are looking to get to Spiti Valley. That seems to be of great interest to him, and upon asking why he gets the full background story.

The chief then turns to look at Nick with sorry eyes, as if mocking him for having a Nazi daugther, then turns back to Shena and tells her of the long history this village has with Spiti village. It turns out that this village was in charge of certain smuggling routes for hundreds of years, and Spiti Valley had their own. However, since the 1950’s Spiti valley has begun taking over some of this village’s territories, leading to some bloody encounters between the villages over the years.

Chief: “You went quite a long way in the wrong direction, but I’ll be happy to show you how to navigate to Spiti Valley. Anything to hurt that village is good for me!”

5/05

(Thursday, early afternoon)

Claudia is seated under a tree in a beautiful spot overlooking the valley at the village skirts. A young woman sits next to her (it is Maria - Leo’s sister, but we don’t know that yet). The two girls have a quiet conversation. 

Claudia asks Maria about Peter, and what was the speech that he gave last night all about. Maria is shy, answers in half sentences - seems to be fearful of talking… she tells her how beautiful and peaceful this place used to be. it wasn’t always like that…

“It wasn’t like what?” Claudia asks.

“The true Aryans were peaceful, before it all started getting corrupted with new rules. Some of our people resisted, but they’re all gone now…” Maria continues quietly, face down.

Claudia, confused… “True Aryans”??

5/06

Suddenly a low, peaceful voice “Hello Claudia”. Both girls raise their heads in surprise to see Peter standing there, a German Shepard at his side. Only now, can Claudia see Peter clearly. He is the epiphany of the Aryan look: tall and well built, with sharp face features and piercing blue eyes. He seems both reassuring and terrifying at the same time. 

Maria quickly stands and takes off, head lowered. Claudia stands to meet Peter. 

Peter is smiley, nice and fatherly. He speaks softly and asks how Claudia is liking the place, as he’s petting his dog, and offering Claudia to do the same. Claudia pets the dog with Peter - it's a little strange… then she says it's lovely, and she’s really happy to have had the chance to quickly visit this magnificent place with Leo.

Hearing Leo’s name seems to slightly adjectate Peter but he quickly snaps out of it, and tells of his great love for that young and talented guy.

Peter then greets her again, wishing her a great rest of the stay, and if she needs anything at all - to not hesitate to ask!

As he walks away, something seems to change in Claudia’s view of the village. More and more weird and dark things start revealing themselves. The place becomes darker, seems to be hiding secrets. Claudia has an eerie feeling that everyone is watching her, although she sees no-one in plain sight.

5/07

(Thursday, almost sunset)

Nick and Shena on their way from the wrong village, towards Spiti Valley. The villagers could spare them a donkey to help with carrying some food and water, as they have a challenging and long trek ahead of them, to cross the mountains back in the right direction. The path is steep and tough, the two walk slowly and silently - semi defeated by all the obstacles they’ve managed to encounter these past few days.

5/08

Nick, who’s been having issues with the local food and an upset stomach, needs to take a break for an urgent number 2. He’s getting uncomfortable in front of Shena, so walks around behind a rock. The donkey ends up harassing him while he is taking a dump, pushing his arse forward with his nose - obsessed about the steamy stuff coming out of there. Nick falls forward while crouching, can't concentrate like that… A hushed yet angry conversation between Nick and the donkey behind the rock. 

Shena feels sorry for the guy and ends up walking behind the rock and pulling the donkey away so that Nick can have his moment. Nick is embarrassed to the bone.

5/09

Back at Spiti Valley:

Claudia realizes she wants out. This place is starting to give her the creeps. She finds Leo and presses him to take her and go meet her father before it gets too dark. He agrees and as they are on their way to pick up his bike near the entrance gates, they are being called-in by Peter. 

Reluctantly, but without much choice, Leo asks that they go up to Peter’s chambers and say goodbye. Claudia doesn’t really want to, but figures a quick goodbye won’t hurt, and it seems to be important to Leo. 

5/10

Leo leads her up a long wide set of stairs leading to the main house and the doors open to a huge and impressive hall, beautifully decorated yet vastly empty. Two young statue-like ladies stand on the sides of the hall, not moving a limb. A German Shepherd dog at the foot of each of them. 

The walls and corridors are decorated with some of the world’s most famous art pieces, paintings, drawings, sculptures etc, all seem to be left overs from the luted art pieces that Natzi occupation collected from across Europe for years.

A beautiful girl walks in from the side (Erica - Peter’s household manager), holding a tray with a can of water and two glasses and silently offers them a drink. Claudia appreciates a good cup of water before they hit the road. Leo gently declines, but seems to realize something that quickly changes his demeanour.

Peter walks in from the other side of the hall to greet them. He is wearing a white long cloth, reminiscence of fantasy wizards - a deceivingly purified look that is actually dark and scary. Leo asks Claudia to wait, and advances to meet Peter half way through the room. He gives a low Natzi salute then kisses both of the man’s hands. Claudia, not seeing the salute, is pleased to see the close relation the two seem to have. She hasn’t noticed them being so close before, but now they seem to interact differently. 

The men have a short yet heated conversation which leaves Leo clearly unhappy. Clauda can’t hear much of their conversation, but manages to catch a few words here and there: “...Not a believer…”, “....shouldn’t stay here…”, “... I can vouch for that!...”.

The conversation ends and the two men walk towards Claudia who stands near the entrance a bit overwhelmed and slightly disoriented. Peter reaches Claudia first and offers his hand for a hand shake.

“Hello again Claudia, it is extremely good to finally have you here in my home.” 

Claudia is a little embarrassed and growingly stressed. This place seems more and more creepy and her gut feeling is clearly sounding her internal alarms. She’d be happy to get out of this place as soon as possible.

“Hi Peter, yeah it's great to see you again too! I wanted to thank you for your beautiful hospitality before I leave...” Claudia is looking at Leo for some participation or answers, but he looks extremely uncomfortable all of the sudden, and is avoiding her looks. 

Peter takes a step closer to Claudia, and offers his hand to her. She hesitates but then puts her hand in his, and they start a slow walk towards the inside of the Hall. 

Peter continues: “you don’t know me very well Claudia, but I know your soul since before you were born. Ever since our resourceful Leo presented me with the opportunity to meet you I simply couldn’t get you out of my head”.

Claudia is starting to feel a little hazy and also very uncomfortable by this guy, she stops and slightly raises her voice:  “listen mister I’m not sure what you’re talking about but Leo and I are just passing through on the way to meet my dad not far from here…!”.

As she’s saying that, looking at Leo for reassurance, she finds him already close to the exit door, apparently on his way out. Claudia lets out an unplanned scream: LEO??!

Leo turns to look at her with a blank look on his face.

Peter is standing uncomfortably close to Claudia who is standing there, frozen like a deer in headlights, her mind more and more hazy from something they must have put in her water, tears starting to fall down her eyes.

“Leo?...” she whispers 

Leo seems to be torn apart from within but he doesn't dare speak another word against those of the High Priest. 

In German: “We don’t usually do this you know” Peter says quietly and his voice echoes through the chambers “we never force our visitors to stay against their will. But there must always be exceptions to the rules, to keep nature in balance. And you my dear are such an exception”.

Claudia is shaking in fear and tearing uncontrollably. Something really evil is happening to her right now. Her mind is buzzing with thoughts and borderline hallucinations. Suddenly she erupts towards the door, kicking and screaming, but is held by Peter who turns violently apprehensive in a split second.

Just then Erica makes herself visible from near the entrance point. She looks much less inviting than she did a few minutes ago. The other girl guards and their dogs situated at the sides of the room get in ‘alert’ positions, making it clear to Claudia that escape is not an option.

“Leo help! Leo - don’t leave me here please. Leo!!!!”

Leo, with extreme agony and tears in his eyes, turns around, not looking back, and walks away. The big hall doors shut closed behind him, and Claudia’s screams slowly diminish in volume as Leo keeps walking.

5/11

Nick and Shena arrive at a deadlock and can only continue from here by foot and without the donkey. They need to walk on a very narrow mountain ledge, with a great drop at its side. An inch of a mistake and they plunge down to their death.

Shena goes first and passes safely to the other side. Nick it turns out, is greatly afraid of heights. He managed to deal with it so far, but this is really scary. He gathers all his mental strengths, and starts advancing, his back to the mountain side and facing the open drop. Eyes closed and sweaty, Nick manages to get through most of the way but suddenly  slips and quickly slides down the mountain side, Shena gives a scream, but Nick is luckily hanging in mid air, his backpack stuck on an old tree branch.

Both scream in fear, and try to quickly realize what to do next. Shena can barely reach Nick, who is dangling like a trapped fly caught in a spider web. There seems to be no physical way either of them can help Nick out of this situation and his fear of heights is at full alert. Nick starts shouting in panic, frustration and pain, as his body weight pulls him down, and his backpack blocks the blood to his arms. 

The situation is quickly deteriorating - it's getting darker by the minute, and more painful, and who knows how long this old dried tree branch will hold. Nick takes a decision to free himself up from the backpack. He starts swinging to the sides, left and right, to change the pressure points on the backpack’s sleeves so he can release one of his arms. After some frightening failing attempts, he finally throws his body weight and manages to pull out his left arm. With that we hear a great crack, followed by a sharp scream - Nick just dislocated his shoulder… In great pain he now needs to turn and use the other hand to hug the tree branch while trying to raise himself up. It’s not going well and he's out of strength. Just as he’s starting to slip down, Shena manages to grab his good arm and hold him (She has secured her feet with some rope to a rock, and crawled with her upper body towards the thin ledge corner, where Nick is dangeleing).

Nick screams in agony as Shena pulls him up which scratches his dangling dislocated arm on the mountain side as he is being pulled up.

At the end of some 5 really scary minutes, both Shena and Nick are lying on the ground at the side of the mountain, breathing heavily. Nick is badly wounded and bleeding from deep scratches located all over his dislocated arm.  

The pain is unbearable, and Shena presses Nick to push his shoulder back in. At his last strength Nick rams his shoulder into the mountain side, and faints.

5/12

(Friday morning)

Establishing shots of the Aryan’s village life. Things are different now that Peter has revealed his true self to Claudia. The ban on talking in the village is back on. No more make believe that was orchestrated especially for Claudia’s arrival.  

Claudia wakes up in a small hut/room that has a nice bedding setup and looks cozy. She’s extremely pale and immediately throws up violently. She is in a haze, not sure where she is. Her clothes have been changed and she is now wearing a similar outfit to the rest of the villagers, but in a different color. 

She reaches into her bag frantically looking for her mobile phone. Thank God - it's still there. She turns it on - looking to her left and right - in fear. The phone finally goes on! She calls her mom, but there’s very poor reception. Nothing is going in or out. Claudia is extremely stressed and confused, then hears some noises next to the door and quickly returns the phone to the bag hoping to not get caught with it.

5/13

The door opens and Maria walks in and sees Claudia pushing her bag away right after she obviously put something back in it. Silently and with some sadness, she offers her a cup of tea and a bowl with some kind of mushy stinky dish. Claudia - relieved to see Maria - and feeling nauseous and dried from all the puking, hurries to the tea cup and drinks it all in one go. It burns her lips. The smell of what's in the food bowl almost makes her puke all over again...She then desperately tries to communicate with Maria who won’t talk and quickly leaves the room.

5/14

Through the window Claudia can spot some of what is taking place in that area of the village: Young men and women going about their way; a young pregnant woman holding a newborn in her arms is followed by her older children ages 3 and 4; a young wife and her five husbands entering the ‘health & spa’ structure at the court center (we’ve seen it when she and Leo strolled the village); two young females - newcomers like Claudia (but that are there willingly) walking around dressed in identical outfit and color as Claudia’s - appearing drugged as well - with men surrounding them in courtship. The girls look lost ; some men (including Thomas and two other villagers) are going out of the ‘main office’ area ; a few dogs are roaming the outskirts of the village. No one seems to be talking really… 

Maria catches her eye, standing at the end of the road. They are looking at each other, Claudia starts crying.

5/15

Nick wakes up sweaty and confused. Shena is right besides him. Seems to have treated his wonders with whatever first aid stuff she had in the bag, and wrapped his shoulder in a resting position. 

Nick: “What day is it, what time is it now??”

Shena: “It's Friday morning. You passed out last night, wasn’t sure you were coming back”. She winks at him, trying to lighten up the situation. Nick realizes that, and all of the sudden appreciates Shena for all that she’s been doing for him. His eyes soften and hers are too.

Nick: “Thank you... for everything”

Shena: “There’s nothing to it”, and she gives him a soft kiss on the lips.

This gets him moving, but then realizing his shoulder is hurting so much that he can barely move. What the hell are they gonna do now? They are still a day of trekking away from reaching Spiti Valley.

Shena realizes this might be the end of their search, but dares not say it. 

5/16

Nick doses back into pain induced sleep. His eyes closed - semi dreaming, semi hallucinating from pain - he’s thinking of his daughter. He sees her - in some kind of danger, Nick as if riding a horse - trying to catch up to her, screaming “Claudia! Claudia!” but he doesn't make it ; he hears the echoing words of the baba he met back in Rishikesh… : “to change flawed patterns in your life, you must make personal sacrifices and fight your inner ego!” ; everything in Nick screams FAILURE! He’s failing his daughter once again. Flashes of young Claudia - 8 years old, crying when he has to leave her after a too short of a visit. He then sees the same scene with a 16 year old Claudia, and then again with 25 year old Claudia” and with that he awakes, his eyes frantic and determined, and stands up - pushing right through the pain. 

“Let’s go Shena, Claudia needs us”.

Shena is momentarily taken aback by this renewed sense of strength, but happy to see this change in Nick. In great pain, they go at it again. This will slow them down considerably but there's no other way. They continue their hike by foot through a massive natural scenery and it seems like there’s no living thing around for miles and miles.

5/17

(Friday afternoon)

Claudia in a heavy haze once again. Seems to be under the influence of some drug given to her with the tea earlier today. She is taken from her room (by the women army-like girls we first met at Peter’s chapel, led by Erica) and brought into a Hamam located in the middle of the strange village (this is the ‘health & spa’ we’ve learned of before). 

On her way there all the beautiful good looking villagers are staring, some smiling, some with pitiful looks. Claudia tries to communicate, talk to anyone that would listen, but no one answers back. This is a truly surreal experience and really fucks with Claudias drug-induced mind.

5/18

Upon arriving at the Hamam she is forced to take her close off and enter a sauna-room (the place looks like a typical Turkish Hamam). There she encounters a sexual ritual between 5 males and one woman taking place right in front of her very eyes.

Claudia is terrified when a voice coming from directly behind her makes her jump in fear: “You are witnessing one of the world's greatest wonders”

It is Peter, now dressed in his authentic order high priest robe, standing so creepingly close to naked Claudia from behind.

Peter continues to explain to Claudia the entire philosophy of the Aryan Order: the woman’s womb is sacred, pure Aryan bloodline legacy, why men and women have been coming here for hundreds of years, the poligomy aspect of their system, and other rules of this place. All of this is told in Peter’s eerie voice, at times almost whispering in her ear, while the dark and twisted sexual ritual is still going on in front of her very eyes.

Claudia seems to be in a stage of shock. Completely paralized.

Erica standing in the dark corner, watching this all go down in envy. It’s hard to tell if she is pleased by what is being done to Claudia, or annoyed by all the attention she is getting from Peter.

5/19

(Friday, late evening)

Upon finally reaching Spiti Valley, totally exhausted, Nick and Claudia stake it out from afar to collect intel and plan their way in. All they can see are some plain villagers living in a small community, most of which seem to be simply hanging out at the outside fronts of their simple brick houses, heating their hands up on bonfires and talking amongst themselves.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary, they see no foreigners and there is no suspicious movement anywhere. They decide to split up and get closer to the village hoping to find some leads.

5/20

Each takes on a different side of the valley and goes on a scary exploration mission. They acknowledge the different look of the fair skinned, blue eyed villagers, but find nothing out of the ordinary, and are lucky to have not been spotted - although both came close to getting caught at least a few times.

5/21

Suddenly we see a group of 3 Aryans walking, they are searching for something on the ground, speaking in German. They are in the midst of a mushroom picking search, the super-trippy kind which they use in their many religious and sexual rituals in the village. One of the guys keeps moving ahead, his eyes down to the ground searching for mushrooms. It’s Leo. 

He’s getting dangerously close to Nick, who has now reached back to the point where he and Shena are supposed to regroup. Nick does not see Leo, nor does Leo see Nick. 50 more yards and Leo is going to turn the corner directly to him.

5/22

Shena is still searching down at the village and is not seeing any of this.

5/23

Leo gets to the corner and sees Nick (who is busy looking the other way, searching for Shena).  Leo freezes, not sure what to do. His two friends call out something to him and are now advancing towards his direction (Thomas and one other guy - which we’ve briefly seen through Claudia’s eyes looking out the window at scene 5.14). 

Hearing the German shouts Nick turns and is terrified to see Leo standing right there staring at him.