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Q: line from the script of "The Last Wave" ( No Answer,   4 Comments )
Question  
Subject: line from the script of "The Last Wave"
Category: Arts and Entertainment
Asked by: relarion-ga
List Price: $2.00
Posted: 02 Feb 2006 19:20 PST
Expires: 04 Feb 2006 11:14 PST
Question ID: 440749
In the Peter Weir movie "The Last Wave," an Aboriginal asks the
Richard Chamberlain character, "Are you a fish? Are you a man? Are
you...." and then says something like "Melkur." I'm spelling it that
way because one Amazon reviewer spelled it that way. Is that the
actual word, or is it something else?
Answer  
There is no answer at this time.

Comments  
Subject: Re: line from the script of "The Last Wave"
From: pinkfreud-ga on 02 Feb 2006 19:53 PST
 
I have not been able to find a copy of the screenplay online.

I can't prove this, but I believe the word may be "mokoi," meaning an evil spirit.

"MOKOI 
 Also known as MOKPOI...

Malevolent spirit invoked by shaman magicians. 

http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/australian-mythology.php?deity=MOKOI
Subject: Re: line from the script of "The Last Wave"
From: hardtofindbooks-ga on 03 Feb 2006 15:36 PST
 
Hi,

the word is Mulkurul
here is the part you mentioned:

"Are you a fish?

No.

Are you a snake?
Are you a man?

Who are you?
Who are you?

Who are you?
Who are you?

Who are you?
Who are you?

Are you Mulkurul?

Yes."

here is some exposition from earlier in the film relating to a carved stone:

"This one I've seen before.
A spirit from the Dreamtime.
Aborigines believe in two forms of time - two parallel streams of activity.
One is the daily objective activity o which you and I are confined.
The other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the Dreamtime...
more real than reality itself.
Whatever happens in the Dreamtime establishes the values, symbols
and laws of Aboriginal society.
Some people of unusual spiritual powers have contact with the Dreamtime.

How?

Through their dreams. Through ceremonies involving sacred objects like
these stones.
What is the name of that spirit?
Ah. Its name is one of the few words recorded from a tribe once active
in Sydney. - Now extinct, of course.

Mulkurul?

Mulkurul.

This is a name given to a race of spirits who came from the rising sun
bringing sacred objects with them like these stones.
This tribe believed that the Mulkurul expressed themselves through people
of unusual spiritual power.
 
You mean, they're sometimes human?

Yes, the local belief was that they acted through humans.

White men?

No. Frankly, I don't think that any of us has the spiritual powers
that tribal people expect from Mulkurul.
You see, a Mulkurul has incredible premonitory dreams.
They usually appear at the end of a cycle when nature has to renew itself.
Most primitive cultures see life in cycles.
Each cycle ends with an apocalypse of some kind.
And then there is a rebirth.

What sort of apocalypse?

Oh, usually a natural cataclysm - a freeze, a flood, a big rain."
Subject: Re: line from the script of "The Last Wave"
From: pinkfreud-ga on 03 Feb 2006 15:44 PST
 
Excellent work, hardtofindbooks-ga! Where did you find the script?
Subject: Re: line from the script of "The Last Wave"
From: relarion-ga on 04 Feb 2006 11:14 PST
 
Thank you so much, HTFB! I originally thought it was "mulcural" and
searched with a variety of spellings, none of which involved three U's
or a K.

I love "The Last Wave" and that's my favorite scene.

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