Awards

Winner for Best Drama Screenplay - 2015 Los Angeles Film and Script Festival
Feature Screenplay Quarter-Finalist - 2016 Richmond International Film Festival
Top 15% Second Rounder in the Drama Category - 2016 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition

The Supplicant Logline

An American soldier of Iraqi origin is heroically killed in action in his former nation, and the ultimate disposition of his remains divides his loved ones as well as the internal politics of both countries.

Praise for The Supplicant

This story is unique to it's genre as it uses war as a setting, but is not dependent on action sequences or heroics. This story is about the love of a family, separated by thousands of miles, and thousands of years of different cultures. This feels incredibly fresh and very touching.



There is a very strong narrative, and the world is incredibly compelling. A military setting that feels familiar, while telling a true story of people, family, and emotion.
There is conflict, but no clear right or wrong side to take. It simply presents all sides of the argument, as much information as possible, and leaves the viewer to consider the complexity and the gray area in such a tale. Very thoughtful and an excellent story for the modern war weary viewer. I think this would make an excellent picture that would spark a real conversation.
- Austin Film Festival

Synopsis

Jefra Owens, a U.S. state department legal aide, is beset by Zeena Al-Obaidi - a woman whose son, Kasim, died in service to the U.S. Army outside of Baghdad. She begs Jefra for help, hoping to have him buried in his birthplace in Mosul. However, Kasim's pending American citizenship, complicates matters and his American wife, Eva, and their infant daughter, Farrah, expect his remains returned for internment in the U.S.

With the powerful Al-Obaidi family pressuring the provisional authority, Colonel Alexander Guzman, the official in charge of Kasim's remains, forms a pact with Provisional Authority General Tariq Al-Kaysi to intern the body in Iraq rather than America, in an effort to placate insurgent forces and to insure future peaceful cooperation between U.S. and Iraqi authorities.

This leads to a military show trial, where Jefra faces off against her legal foil Alicia Clarke, and where Eva, and the rest, hear testimony regarding the circumstances of her deceased husband's heroic death. Touched by proceedings, in the aftermath of the hearing Guzman reneges on his part of the deal to turn over the remains, thereby forcing General Al-Kaysi to take matters into his own hands.

With Tariq seemingly having taken the day, Guzman's guilt prompts him to come clean about the plot, and he confesses his part to the grieving widow, who sadly, is mortally injured on the way back to her hotel.

At the funeral Guzman and the men of Kasim's unit deliver stirring eulogies, followed by the unexpected appearance of Eva's dismayed father, Philip - who breaks down, having to face the deaths of not only a son-in-law he has come to love, but that of his daughter as well.

Much later, on the anniversary of Eva's death, Philip and young Farrah visit the grave, and encounter a state department official who bemoans the way in which the situation was handled, and she further explains that she has seen to it that the young girl will be taken care of in monetary perpetuity. But, not before one last mystery is revealed.