Zahra Between the Talons of a Falcon

Hurt

**Sa'deya** : Nour Hanem, the food is ready.

Tell Mr. Salem we need him downstairs.

**Nour** : Okay, Sa'deya. I'm coming down now.

Turning to Salem: We're going down now, Salem.

**Salem** : You're going down with that face like an owl?

How? Stay here.

I'll have them bring you any food

you never used to eat at your father's house.

**Nour** : I just want to understand

why you don't want to divorce me.

I've asked you a hundred times.

Or at least leave me here and get married.

That way you’ll be sure I’ll stay here

and won’t go anywhere.

**Salem** : With a laugh full of sarcasm

Divorce you?

That's the devil's wish.

**Nour** : I hate you so much.

I wish time would take me back

so I could run away or kill myself

and not be afraid of what would happen to my family,

or that I married you.

**Salem** : You mean run away with your beloved, the doctor?

**Nour** : The fault isn’t his.

The fault is on the man who knew

his wife didn’t want him and wanted someone else,

and still agreed and insisted on marrying her,

and took advantage of my family's poverty,

need, and my father's helplessness.

**Salem** : You mean your father's greed,

who was happy to throw you at me

to get rid of the debt and take the land.

I don't know how I paid land for you.

What if you were educated like Zahra

or the mayor's daughter?

**Nour** : And if Nour is on your mind that much,

why didn’t you marry her?

Oh right, your grandfather didn’t agree to you.

He said this one is for your brother Mahmoud

because he’s better than you

and a real man, not like you.

Overcome with anger, Salem hits Nour

as if taking revenge on her,

then takes his robe and leaves,

leaving her on the floor with her wounds.

He goes inside to the dining table

and the questions begin.

**Nahed** : So where's your wife, brother?

**Salem** : She's a bit unwell.

She'll have breakfast upstairs.

**Zahra** : Unwell?

What's wrong with her?

I'll go check on her.

**Salem** : No need.

He looks at his mother Badr

so she understands what's happening.

**Badr** : She's unwell, Doctor.

She's just acting spoiled with her husband.

When you get married you'll understand women's tantrums.

**Grandfather Mostafa** : Sit down, Zahra.

Finish your breakfast.

**Zahra** : Resigned

Okay.

**Grandfather Mostafa** : I need you, Mahmoud, after breakfast.

**Mahmoud** : Okay, Grandpa.

After breakfast, Zahra goes to see Nour

without anyone knowing.

She finds her sitting on the floor

crying bitterly.

**Zahra** : Fearfully

Nour, what's wrong?

What happened to you?

**Nour** : The usual, Zahra.

As if you don't know,

or you're pretending not to know like them.

**Zahra** : While bandaging her wound

and seeing many old scars

I don't understand

why you're staying silent about what's happening.

**Nour** : I've told you a million times, I'm not you.

I'm not Grandpa's beloved,

whose country owns her with its lands and people.

I don't have a degree to work with,

and I don't have family who will stand up

to the unjust man fate threw me to.

On the contrary, they threw me to him

to save themselves and your siblings.

You're the sacrificial lamb.

How many times do I have to tell you that?

How many times will I keep telling you?

**Zahra** : I didn't mean anything, Nour.

Calm down, forgive me.

Let me see your hand.

Continuing, not knowing

if what she’s about to say is right or wrong

Nour, I want to tell you something.

**Nour** : What is it, Zahra?

**Zahra** : Ali is coming back to the village.

**Nour** : Impossible!

How?

Tell him not to come back, Zahra.

If you can reach him,

tell him not to come here again.

**Zahra** : Unfortunately, he won't let anyone interfere.

I tried to call him, but he's coming back from America

and finished his fellowship.

He asked to come here and rejected

all the offers from other countries.

You know he's a genius doctor,

and unfortunately what he's doing

will ruin his future.

**Nour** : Why is he coming?

**Zahra** : No one knows.

**Nour** : He's definitely coming to take revenge on me.

He thinks I abandoned him

and refused to go abroad with him

and stayed here and got married.

A marriage everyone thinks is a happy one

and that I'm a lady, and I agreed for the money.

So he's definitely coming to see it with his own eyes.

**Zahra** : Tell him, Nour.

Explain what happened.

Make him understand you did it for him.

**Nour** : I will never tell him,

and I won't let anyone tell him.

Let him hate me, but not himself.

It's better he thinks I abandoned him

than to know that he built his future

and became a doctor at the expense of my future.

**Zahra** : Sadly

I wish I could help you, Nour.

**Nour** : No one can help me except God.

Pray for me, Zahra.

**Zahra** : May God help you, Nour,

and resolve it for you, God willing.

On the other side of our story,

in Alexandria, the city of magic and beauty,

there is a house directly on the sea in Al Maamoura.

A chalet, magnificent in its beauty,

in terms of furniture and the breathtaking view

that steals the mind and the heart.

Our hero begins by waking up

to the voice of his friend Sofyan,

who appears to be in his early thirties,

with dark brown hair, wheatish skin,

and brown eyes.

**Sofyan** : Come on, Younes, get up.

I've been waking you for an hour.

This is unbelievable.

They call you Younes "The Falcon",

does a falcon sleep like this, my man?

**Younes** : Our hero with sharp and bold features,

deep black hair, black eyes,

a lean body, tall stature,

and prominent muscles.

Younes:

My man, don't you understand?

I've been telling you for an hour,

I'm not coming with you.

Go ahead so you can catch lunch

with the esteemed family.

**Sofyan** : If I go without you,

my aunt might kill me, my man.

She insisted you be here today,

and she definitely made this whole party

because of you.

At least come for my sake, Younes.

You know my aunt.

And even though she's my mother,

you know what you mean to her.

And I know what she could do to me

if you don't come.

I'm sure she won't blame you,

but she'll say,

"Even this one is a failure,

and couldn't bring his cousin."

**Younes** : Knowing how cruel his aunt was,

especially with her son,

who couldn't become the head of the family

as she wanted,

he took pity on him and agreed

to go with him to the family house.

**Sofyan** : That's it, my dear cousin.

Finally.

Both of them go to ride their cars

and head to the house.

A woman in her fifties receives them,

wearing black, looking upset.

She starts talking to her son Sofyan.

**Aziza** : All this time to bring your cousin?

**Younes** : Intervening:

I'm the one who was late, Aunt.

Sofyan has been on my case since morning.

If it weren't for him,

I wouldn't have come.

**Aziza** : So you weren't going to come, Younes,

to see your aunt?

She hugs him,

then her tone turns to fake sadness.

**Younes** : Gently pushing her away

You know, Aunt, the situation.

**Aziza** : What situation?

Things happen in every house.

Everyone sits at the table,

and we begin to get to know the other family.

Younes sits at the head of the table,

with his aunt on his right,

and Sofyan on his left.

Then next to his aunt is her daughter Jamila,

who is meant to be his wife,

but he strongly refuses,

which caused a rift between him

and his aunt for the first time in years.

Next to her is her niece.

And on the other side,

next to Sofyan, is her other daughter Khadija

and her husband Madieh,

who seems to have a sharp tongue.

**Madieh** : Starting the conversation

What, Jamila?

Aren't you going to serve the groom the food?

**Younes** : With an angry look

No need.

I'm leaving anyway.

**Aziza** : After Younes and then Sofyan got up

You will never change, Madieh.

You will always be a failure,

living in our house.

She also leaves and leaves him.

**Khadija** : His wife:

Why did you do that, Madieh?

Won't you ever stop these antics?

**Madieh** : Shut up.

If you had any sense,

we wouldn't be in this situation.

**Khadija** : What's wrong with our situation?

**Madieh** : We should have been the ones

running the business, the companies,

and the showrooms,

instead of me being just an employee

in what is mine.

**Khadija** : Yours!!

You clearly forget, Madieh.

This money is my father's and my uncle's money.

Meaning it's my money.

And when I married you,

you didn't have anything,

not even an apartment to live in.

That's why we live at my family's.

And the job you don't like,

you wouldn't have gotten it.

**Madieh** : Trying to fix the situation,

knowing that his wife,

despite her kind heart and great love for him,

is the only fair one

and doesn't accept injustice toward her family.

I didn't mean it.

I just thought we are one,

and it's all for our kids in the end.

I didn't know you would throw it in my face,

daughter of good people.

He leaves her after flipping the table,

making her feel guilty.

**Khadija** : To herself

What was the point of that talk?

Oh God, now he's upset with me.

She promises herself she will apologize to him in the evening.

At Aziza's,

who sits in the living room

with her son and her nephew,

she starts the conversation.

**Aziza** : Enough, Younes.

There's no need for this estrangement.

I'm trying to understand your point of view,

and I don't want to lose you, my son,

for any reason.

**Younes** : Aunt, I've made it clear to you

that I refuse marriage completely.

The problem isn't Jamila.

If I ever marry,

she would be the best wife for me.

She knows my nature,

and she knows the nature of my work,

and I know she would protect me.

But you understand that I swore

I would never marry, no matter what.

So why tie her to me

and hang her on false hopes?

**Sofyan** : You're right, Younes.

The only one who will lose here is Jamila,

because she's the one whose heart

will get attached to you.

**Aziza** : Looking at her son threateningly

I told you, Younes, that's enough.

Even though I don't agree with you.

It's not because your mother was a bad woman

that you destroy your life.

Not all women are like her.

I've told you this a hundred times.

**Younes** : Containing his anger for the last time

And I've told you a billion times,

don't talk about this subject.

But you insist on bringing her up.

Did you mean to hurt me?

He leaves and leaves her,

without looking back.

**Sofyan** : Why, Mom?

**Aziza** : Going to her son and slapping him

By telling you that his words are right

and I'm wrong?

Instead of working to get close to him

and make him reason,

and make him marry your sister

so we ensure no stranger enters the family?

And telling him that Jamila will get attached,

as if you don't know

that your sister has wanted him for a long time

and has been waiting for him.

By my life, she will be his wife soon,

no matter what happens.

At Younes's,

who drove his car

and stopped in front of a small restaurant,

watching a woman sitting at one of the tables.

There were some old songs of Umm Kulthum

playing as she sang and read some news.

Suddenly a man appears,

looking dignified and handsome.

He holds her hand and kisses it, then leaves.

**Younes** : You will never change.

You will remain cheap all your life.

He goes back to his dark, gloomy world.