[joe-frank-list] 'The Dictator' part 1

[russellbell at gmail.com]

	Joe (a child) tells of the great drought afflicting his
village; people, including his sister, explode and burst into flame.
	6:50: It rains for 3 months, drowning everybody and thing,
except Joe, who grabs an uprooted tree trunk, floats to a new village,
where a family adopts him.
	7:50: The new village is farmers.  A cruel neighboring tribe
kills all, except Joe, who buried himself, breathed through a reed
during the raid.
	9:40: Joe, now the dictator, describes his ultra-safe bunker,
his dozens of doubles, goes to the surface to encourage his troops.
	19:40: Joe tells the story of an oil seller who had 4 bottles
of especially-valuable oil.  He gave 1 to a neighbor who burnt his
house down, the second to another neighbor who has an affair with his
wife, who bears quadruplets dedicated to assassinating him, the third
to a holy man who cursed him.
	22:30: 'Freedom... is so exhilarating...' Joe, the dictator,
has to be careful about whom he trusts.
	28:00: Joe played a game when a child, putting as much dirt as
possible in ears, nose, mouth; Joe always won.  Then he began burying
himself, had to have dirt cooked into all his meals.  Eventually he
became his own garden, ate what grew on him.  (This was adapted for a
short film, 'Dirt'.)
	30:40: 'Moral conscience is a hall of mirrors...' what is good
behavior changes over time and place, is relative; Joe expatiates on
this matter for minutes.
	35:00: Joe says power is better than morality, delivers a
paean to power.
	39:10: Circus comes to town when Joe is 15.  Magda, the
beautiful contortionist, mesmerizes Joe.  One evening she can't untie
herself.  Joe ran down to untie her.  Circus master adds Joe untying
Magda to the act.
	41:40: Joe the dictator: the attacking army is winning against
him, but Joe is defiant.
	46:30: Joe repeats, 'Help me unravel this knot and find my way
back to the town where I first saw you, where all this started, this
thirst.', with different put-on voices.
	48:50: Music, cannon fire, explosions.