L o v e d N o t T h e i r L i v e s
Three Act Structure
Act I:
Wrunken, a young girl, about 13 years old is the central character. It’s the 1500’s in Flanders which present day Belgium. Persecution of Protestants is rampant in parts of Europe where the Reformation is taking hold. King Philip II of Spain has issued a decree to stamp out Protestants – at whatever cost – to those who insist on reading the Bible scriptures in their own language, so he sends the Duke of Alba and the Inquisitor to Flanders.
Wrunken, a servant in Mayor Brugge’s home, is an orphan who was cared for by Johanka, the owner of the orphanage after Wrunken’s father, a poor pauper, left her there being unable to care for her.
The Inquisitor, an official who is sent by the Catholic church to search out, investigate and judge those considered heretics, bursts into Mayor Brugge’s home where an intense interrogation of his family and servants transpires. A Bible is discovered and is found to be Wrunken’s. The Mayor knowing the penalty is death, tries to defend her saying she’s never read it, but Wrunken isn’t ashamed and acknowledges that the Bible is hers and she reads it. There is swift action as Wrunken is chained up and taken to prison to be given a death sentence by suffocation being bricked in alive in the city wall.
Act II:
Being in the prison cell Wrunken is at her lowest, yet resolute in her faith; although many hope she’ll back down and not be martyred. The Inquisitor has sought out bricklayers to hallow out the place in the city wall where Wrunken is to be entombed. Mr. Frans, a bricklayer, is forced against his will by the Inquisitor to do the job. Showing his cynical character, the Inquisitor pays off Mrs. Frans with 30 pieces of silver. The following days become intense, spiritual turning points for not only the Mayor, but also for the jailer, Mrs. Frans and another young orphan girl, Isabella. Mayor Brugge visits Wrunken in jail to try to get her to recant from reading the Bible, but seeing her resolute faith he asks her to pray for him to become a Christian.
The major hurdles Wrunken has to overcome are;
- Can she bear the Inquisitor’s interrogation and insistence that she recant of her reading the Bible,
- The abandonment of her father and does he know what’s happening to her,
- Will her faith falter and can she bear the brutish parading through the city where she’ll be taunted and jeered at,
- Will there be anyone to carry the torch after her and will others be willing to die for Jesus,
- The concern about Mayor Brugge’s new faith and will he stay steadfast,
- How will her dream of printing Bibles and teaching the orphan children about Jesus be realized.
With Wrunken’s strong faith, conviction and belief in Jesus, she refuses to recant or repent for reading the Bible. The last bricks are laid over her face, where being entombed alive, she ultimately suffocates and dies.
Act III:
Everyone thinks it’s over, that there is defeat. On the contrary, the Word of God can’t be killed, even amidst persecution because it is alive. Mayor Brugge’s life has been radically transformed not only by Wrunken but by his new faith in Christ Jesus. Meeting Isabella, the young girl from the same orphanage Wrunken was in, has stirred his and his wife’s heart to adopt her.
Not only that, but the dream that Wrunken had to start a printing press to print Bibles, and have a place to teach children the Bible, comes to fruition with Mayor Brugge developing a large, hidden, underground printing room and classroom in his home. He knows that the little girl he’s just adopted, will help carry out that dream.
To read the short film script, please click on the PDF download below.