Category: random ideas

Sempa Trupka – True Love

As You know, I’m back from holiday. I haven’t resumed writing yet. I have to get ready for school next week, I’m doing this Aaron Sorkin Screenwriting Masterclass and I’m playing a bit of No Man’s Sky. There’s a lot going on but I hope to get started again next week but I wanted to write a post¹. At first I wanted to to another featured Screenplay but I’ll wait till September for that, so I decided to introduce a new segment to the blog, I call it Random Screenplay Idea and that’s pretty much exactly what it is. A random idea, nothing fancy, nothing too elaborate, just an idea, the core of a movie, maybe something I’ll explore in the near future, maybe not.

So without further ado, I present: Sempa Trupka.

Ok, a little ado, here’s some backstory/therapy. Readers of my blog know, that my holidays are great for my creativity. In fact, I can track back most of my good ideas and/or screenplays back to a great holiday. Sometimes it’s the place that inspired me (to keep going), sometimes it’s a person that sparked an idea but most of the time it was both. Every script I associate with places and people². This year is no exception but its a bit different, this year a song is part of it too. The bus driver was really into Tibetan music and one particular song seemed to be playing all the time. Sempa Trupka. Sempa Trupka is Tibetan for True Love and it’s your typical ballad, it’s not better nor worse than what we have but for some reason it stuck with me. I have no idea what the lyrics mean but the title is self explanatory

So on my last day in Crete I suddenly had this idea for a movie based on the song. I’m not sure if it’s a movie I’d like to write (or even see) but the idea was intriguing. Inspired by the song and by what I saw in Tibet, the movie is about this Tibetan boy, his mother loves to sing him to sleep with a traditional song until one day soldiers show up. The family didn’t play by the rules and they have to suffer. The nightmare begins and after a huge ordeal the parents somehow manage to get their little boy to safety. He’s a refugee now and he uses his singing to make other forget their misery. A music producer hears him sing by accident and want’s to monetize they boys talent.

The movie then focuses on how the producer exploits the boy for his own gains. The boy is forced to sing whatever the producer wants. The producer plans his whole life and career, the boy is like a prisoner again, so obviously there are tensions but the producer has one ace, he promises to try to free the parents. He’s obviously lying but the boy/young man doesn’t know that. His parents are long dead. What’s even worse for the boy, is the fact that he’s losing all connection to his heritage.

Finally the boy is able to get rid of the producer and become his own man/musician by turning the song his mom sang to him into a worldwide hit. Guess what that song is called….Sempa Trupka. Obviously there’s going to be a romance as well but the main focus/theme is identity, standing up for yourself and being able to relate to your heritage, “True Love” for yourself and where you came from.

It’s probably not the most original idea and it gets me banned in China but I think it’s a neat little idea. What do you think?