Hadji Murat — Excerpt

Loris-Melikov sits in an armchair that stands by the table. Hadji Murat seats himself on a low divan facing him and, his hands propped on his knees, bows his head and begins listening attentively to what Loris-Melikov says.

LORIS-MELIKOV
(in Tartar, subtitled)
Though the prince knows of your past, he wishes to learn your whole story from you. You tell it to me, and I will write it down, then translate it into Russian, and the prince will send it to the sovereign.

Hadji Murat pauses, then raises his head, shakes back his papakha, and smiles that special childlike smile that had already captivated Marya Vassilievna.

HADJI MURAT
(obviously flattered by the thought that his story would be read by the sovereign;
in Tartar, subtitled)
That is possible.

LORIS-MELIKOV
(taking a notebook from his pocket; in Tartar, subtitled)
Tell it to me, right from the beginning, and don’t hurry.

HADJI MURAT
(in Tartar, subtitled)
That is possible, only there is so much, very much to tell. Many things happened.

LORIS MELIKOV
(in Tartar, subtitled)
If you don’t manage in one day, you can finish the next.

HADJI MURAT
(in Tartar, subtitled)
Begin from the beginning?

LORIS-MELIKOV
(in Tartar, subtitled)
Yes, from the beginning: where you were born, where you lived.

Hadji Murat lowers his head and sits like this for a time; then he picks up a little stick that lies by the divan, takes from under his dagger with its gold-mounted ivory hilt a razor-sharp steel knife and begins to whittle the stick with it and at the same time begins to tell his story:

HADJI MURAT
(in Tartar, subtitled)
Write: Born in Tselmes, a small soul, the size of an ass’ head, as we say in the mountains. Not far from us, a couple of shots away, was Khunzakh, where the khans lived. And our family was close to them. My mother nursed the eldest, Abununtsal Khan, which is why I became close to them. There were three khans:

Cut to: Palace Pleasure Garden, Mixed Interior/Exterior, Midday

Abununstal Khan stands.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
Abununstal Kahn, the foster brother of my brother Osman—

Umma Khan stands next to his brother.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
—Umma Khan, my worn brother—

Bulutch Khan stands next to his brother.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
—and Bulatch Khan, the youngest, the one Shamil threw from the cliff. But of that later.

As Hadji Murat says, “the one Shamil threw from the cliff,” Umma throws a laughing Bulatch into the pool that’s revealed in front of them.

Cut to: A Sakyla on the Plains, Exterior, Midday

A group of murals ride, striking the Skyla’s stones with wooden sabers and crying, “Muslims, ghazavat!”

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
I was about fifteen years old when the murals started going around the aouls. They struck the stones with wooden sabers and cried: “Muslims, ghazavat!”, our holy war. All the Chechens went over to the murals, and the Avars began to go over.

The murals move on. An old man comes out of the sakyla, looking after them.

Cut to: The Palace of the Khans, Interior, Midday

A Young Hadji Murat in the palace’s pleasure garden with the other Khans, warmly interacting and enjoying themselves.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
I lived in the palace then. I was like a brother to the khans: I did as I liked and became rich. I had horses, and weapons, and I had money. I lived for my own pleasure, not thinking about anything. And I lived like that till the time when Kazi Mullah was killed and Hamzat stood in his place.

Cut to: Hamzat’s envoys walk to the throne, stop before it, and speak with the Khansha. (Consecutively with Hadji Murat’s V.O.)

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
Hamza sent envoys to the khans to tell them that, if they did not take up the ghazavat, he would lay waste to Khunzakh. This needed thought.

Cut to: the Khans and Khansha thinking it over on the throne, looking at each other for help.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
The khans were afraid of the Russians, afraid to take up the ghazavat, and the khansha (the Khansha looks to Umma Khan) sent me with her son, the second one, Umma Khan—

Umma Khan, meeting his mother’s gaze, leans forward—

Cut to: Outside Tiflis, Exterior, Midday

Umma Khan leans forward on horseback, riding with Young Hadji Murat, towards the city.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
—to Tiflis, to ask the chief Russian commander for help against Hamzat.

Cut to: Rosen’s Office, Interior, Midday

Chief Commander Rosen sits at his desk, dismissing an adjunct as is said:

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
The Chief Commander was Rosen, the baron. He did not receive me or Umma Khan. He sent to tell us he would help and did nothing.

Cut to: Tiflis, a Sleazy Bar and Dirty Alleyway, Exterior, Night

Umma Khan, drinking and gambling with Russian troops, drunkenly stumbles out of a bar and barely makes his way down the alley, eventually sliding down the wall and collapsing. Young Hadji Murat comes, pick him up, and walks with him home, Umma Khan stumbling and leaning heavily on Young Hadji Murat. (Consecutively with Hadji Murat’s V.O.)

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
Only his officers began coming to us and playing cards with Umma Khan. They got him drunk and took him to bad places, and he lost all he had to them at cards. He was strong as a bull in body, and brave as a lion, but his soul was weak as water. He would have gambled away his last horses and weapons, if I hadn’t taken him away. After Tiflis my thinking changed, and I began to persuade the khansha and the young khans to take up the ghazavat.

Cut to: Hadji Murat’s Quarters in Tiflis, Interior, Midday

LORIS-MELIKOV
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
Why did your thinking change? You didn’t like the Russians?

HADJI MURAT
(pausing, then speaking resolutely with closed eyes; in Tartar, subtitled)
No, I didn’t. And there was something else that made me want to take up the ghazavat.

LORIS-MELIKOV
(in Tartar, subtitled)
What was that?

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
Near Tselmes the khan and I ran into three murids:

Cut to: Outside Tselmes, Exterior, Midday

Two murals run away. A pistol shot is heard, and the third falls. Young Hadji Murat approaches him. (Consequently with the V.O.)

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
When I went up to him total his weapons, he was still alive. He looked at me.

DYING MURID
(in Tartar, subtitled)
You have killed me. That is well with me. But you are a Muslim, and young and strong. Take up the ghazavat. God orders it

LORIS-MELKOV
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
Well, and did you take it up?

Cut to: Hadji Murat’s Quarters, Tiflis, Interior, Midday

HADJI MURAT
(in Tartar, subtitled)
I didn’t but I started thinking. When Hamzat approached Khunzakh, we sent some old men and told them to say that we were ready to take up the ghazavat, if only he would send a learned man to explain how we were to keep it. Hamzat ordered the old men’s mustaches shaved, their nostrils pierced, and flat cakes hung from their noses, and sent them back. The old men addressed us when they returned.

Cut to: The Palace of the Khans, The Throne Room, Interior, Midday

The Mutilated Old Men, with flat cakes hanging from their noses, stand before the thrones of the Khans.

MUTILATED OLD MAN
(in Tartar, subtitled)
Hamzat is ready to send a sheikh to teach you of the ghazavat, but only if the khansha sends her youngest son to him as an amanat.

The Khansha slowly looks to Bulatch Khan. (Consequently with Hadji Murat’s V.O.)

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
The khansha trusted Hamzat and sent Bulatch Khan to him.

Cut to: Hadji Murat’s Quarters, Tiflis, Interior, Midday

HADJI MURAT
(in Tartar, subtitled)
Hamzat received Bulatch Khan well, and sent to us to invite the older brothers, too. He told the messenger to say that he wanted to serve the khans just as his father had served their father. The khansha was a weak woman, foolish and bold, as all rulers are when they live by their own will. She was afraid to send both her sons and sent only Umma Khan. I went with him.

Cut to: A Field Beside Hamzat’s Encampment, Exterior, Afternoon

A group of murals ride out to meet the two riders, singing, firing their guns, and caracoling about. (Consecutively with Hadji Murat’s V.O.)

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
The murals rode out a mile ahead to meet us, and sang, and fired their guns, and caracoled around us.

Cut to: Hamzat’s Encampment, Exterior, Afternoon

They approach Hamzat’s tent and he emerges with Young Shamil, approaching Umma Khan. (Consecutively with Hadji Murat’s V.O.)

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
And when we rode up, Hamzat came out of his tent, went to the stirrup of Umma Khan, and received him as befits a khan.

HAMZAT
(in Tartar, subtitled)
I have done no harm to your house and do not want to. Only do not kill me and do not hinder me from bringing people over to the ghazavat. And I will serve you with my whole army as my father served your father. Let me live in your house. I will help you with my advice, and you do what you want.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
Umma Khan was dull of speech. He did not know what to say, and was silent.

YOUNG HADJI MURAT
(in Tartar, subtitled)
If it is so, let Hamzat go to Khunzakh. The khansha and the khan will receive you with honor.

Cut to: Hadji Murat’s Quarters, Tiflis, Interior, Noon

HADJI MURAT
(in Tartar, subtitled)
But they did not let me finish, and here for the first time I encountered Shamil.

Cut to: Hamzat’s Encampment, Exterior, Afternoon

YOUNG SHAMIL
(in Tartar, subtitled)
It was not you who were asked, but the khan.

Young Hadji Murat falls silent. Hamzat ushers Umma Khan into his tent.

HAMZAT
(to Young Hadji Murat; in Tartar, subtitled)
Go to Khunzakh with my envoys.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
I went.

Cut to: The Palace of the Khans, The Throne Room, Interior, Midday

The Envoys stand before the Khansa and speak with her.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
The envoys started persuading the khans to let the oldest khan go to Hamzat as well. I saw the treachery.

YOUNG HADJI MURAT
(to the Khansha, in Tartar, subtitled)
Do not send your son.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
But the woman had as much sense in her head as there are hairs on an egg. She trusted them.

KHANSHA
(to Adununtsal, in Tartar, subtitled)
Adununtsal, you shall go to them.

ADUNUNTSAL
(in Tartar, subtitled)
I don’t want to go

KHANSHA
(in Tartar, subtitled)
It’s clear you’re afraid.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
Like a bee, she knew where to sting him most painfully.

ABUNUNTSAL
(flaring up; to his servants, in Tartar, subtitled)
Have my horse saddled.

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
I went with him.

Cut to: The Plains Before Hamzat’s Encampment, Exterior, Afternoon

Young Hadji Murat and Abununtsal ride to meet Hamzat, who greets them with an ever larger and more lively entourage than he met Young Hadji Murat and Umma Khan with. Hamzat’s horsemen ride with standards, singing ‘La ilaha il Allah,’ shooting off their guns, and caracoling. (Consecutively with Hadji Murat’s V.O.)

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
Hamzat met us better still than Umma Khan. He himself rode out two shots’ distance down the hill.

Cut to: Hamzat’s Encampment, Exterior, Afternoon

Upon reaching the camp, Hamzat shows Abununtsal into his tent while Young Hadji Murat stays with the horses at the foot of the hill. Shooting begins in Hamzat’s tent. Young Hadji Murat runs to the tent.

Cut to: Hamzat’s Tent, Interior, Afternoon

Umma Khan lies face down in a pool of blood, and Abununtsal fights with the murids. Half of his face had been cut off and hangs down. He holds it with one hand and holds a dagger the other, with which he cuts down everyone who comes near him In front of Young Hadji Murat he cuts down Hamzat’s brother and turns against another man, but here the murals start shooting at him and he falls.

Cut to: Hadji Murat’s Quarters, Interior, Before Noon

Hadji Murat stops, his tanned face turned reddish brown, and his eyes have become bloodshot. He’s stopped whittling his stick.

Cut to: Hamzat’s Tent, Interior, Afternoon

Young Hadji Murat, standing at the entrance of the tent, runs away. (Consecutively with Hadji Murat’s V.O.)

HADJI MURAT
(V.O. in Tartar, subtitled)
Fear came over me, and I ran away.

Cut to: Hadji Murat’s Drawing Room, Tiflis, Interior, Noon

LORIS-MELIKOV
(in Tartar, subtitled)
Really? I thought you were never afraid of anything.

HADJI MURAT
(in Tartar, subtitled)
Never afterwards. Since then I always remembered that shame, and when I remembered it, I was no longer afraid of anything. (pause) Enough for now. I must pray.

Hadji Murat takes Vorontsov’s Brequet watch from the inside breast pocket of his cherkeska, carefully presses the release, and, inclining his head to one side and repressing a childlike smile, listens. The watch rings twelve and a quarter.

HADJI MURAT
(smiling)
Kunak Vorontsov peshkesh. A good man.

LORIS-MELIKOV
(in Tartar, subtitled)
Yes, a good man, and a good watch. You go and pray, then, and I’ll wait.

HADJI MURAT
Yakshi, good.

Hadji Murat gets up and goes into the bedroom.

Left alone, Loris-Melikov writes down in his notebook the main things from what Hadji Murat had told him, then lights a cigarette and begins pacing up and down the rom. Coming to the door opposite the bedroom, Loris-Melikov hears the animated voices of people speaking about something rapidly in Tartar. He goes in.