Drama | Paris, 2022
Main characters
Tweety is the 15-year-old daughter of Beatrice and Jean, a couple going through a major crisis. Tweety's mother has begun an affair with a man whom Jean has discovered. The man, who is also a heavy drinker, lost control and beat Beatrice savagely. Despite this, the two did not separate. Amid violent arguments, threats, and reconciliations, the couple continues to remain under the same roof. But Tweety hates her home and tries to be around as much as possible, aware that each return is increasingly difficult. Jean's anger also affects Tweety, but Bea is always ready to protect her from the man's reactions.
The call to adventure
Time passes and the family situation worsens until it precipitates when Jean discovers hashish in Tweety's backpack. The man beats the girl and triggers his wife's intervention. Beatrice attacks her husband with a knife, wounds him, and rescues Tweety from the man's blind wrath. The two women flee together in a car.
The conflict
Mother and daughter seek refuge from the only relatives they have who live in a village in the Pyrenees. The girl would like her mother to denounce the man, but Beatrice is afraid, both because she is the one who hurt her husband and because - in her heart - she still loves Jean and hopes to make peace.
The journey to the relatives is not easy: the women have no money and have to make do. In addition, Tweety feels distant and different from her mother. She does not justify or understand her, and this complicates everything.
The key
Quiet days at relatives end when Jean tracks down his wife and daughter. The man, gripped by an obsession with revenge for being betrayed, hurt and abandoned reaches the relatives' home. Only the intervention of a cousin of Beatrice's rescues the two women. Jean is arrested by the police and taken to prison.
But Beatrice does not want to return to Paris, and for once even Tweety agrees. Mother has a little plan: she has been studying Portuguese and an old friend has offered her a job as a translator in a language school.
The decision is made: they will go to Lisbon to rebuild their lives. Thus begins a new long journey that will bring mother and daughter closer together as they stand united before the ocean visible from the shores of the Portuguese capital.
Plot alternatives
The narrative develops around two topics: escape and mother-daughter relationships, but the real dynamic lies in the insecurity that some families pass on to their children. Building on these elements, it is possible to write hundreds of stories more or less similar to the one told here. One method is to create a conflict that brings the characters in the story to the brink of the abyss, one step away from an extreme gesture or separation, and then find a motive that creates a dramatic alliance. As always, places and times are easily changed.
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