The immortal romance between Abraham and his foreign wife Hagar is one of the great overlooked tragedies of literary history. Historically speaking, this love triangle and the injustice to the soul of proud Hagar can be said to remain at the root of the conflict in the Middle East to this very day. The passion between Abraham and the former princess who comes into his house as a slave-girl and co-wife who gives birth to his firstborn son ignites jealousy in Abraham's wife Sarah, who sees to it that Hagar is ousted from the tent. Some Islamic scholars emphasize the fact that it was Ishmael and not Isaac who would by rights have been Abraham's firstborn and therefore his legitimate heir, had it not been for Hagar's eviction from the tent.

The screenplay differs from the source text - the Old Testament - in that we explore the subtleties of the love triangle more deeply to reveal the cruel machinations of female rivalry at the root of the injustice that has been fuelling conflict between the two legacies ever since. We see that it is domestic conflict, Sarah's unhappiness with Hagar as a domestic servant and Hagar's lack of desire to serve her lover's wife in such a subservient role, that drives the rage culminating in the spectre of the eviction into the desert. Abraham is seen standing on the edge of the desert peering into the distance, with tears in his eyes: ''Hagar, Hagar, why did you desert me?"

Britten War Requiem

We thank Blip FM VIVA! for its assistance in compiling soundtrack selections for the film during the development process.

http://blip.fm/profile/viva/blip/82344207/Britten+War+Requiem+Rostropovich+Dies+Irae+opening+Terfel

Abraham and Hagar: desert passion

Extracts from Zemlinsky's lyric symphony are used as soundtrack in some of the love scenes to portray the passion between Abraham and his soul mate, the co-wife Hagar. Source books for the story are Quran, The Old Testament and Torah.

http://blip.fm/profile/viva/blip/82290235/Zemlinsky:+Lyrische+Symphonie–Runnicles%7CRCO(2007Live)

Extracts from Soundtrack

Specific recordings of known works used for the soundtrack have not been licensed for use in the film as of yet, and are used strictly for experimental purposes.

http://blip.fm/profile/viva/blip/82200327/Verdi+-Requiem-+Dies+irae

Leap of Faith

When I wake up to find myself in another century, on another continent, Ishmael is here with me. I am calm.

I have seen this place of the future before, many times in my haunting visions - I saw it when I was in the desert. Even my dress does not look much different. I seem to be wearing the same protective cloak, leaving only a screen for my eyes to see through.

I know I am safe because he is here. Ishmael is my sign of a sacred heart. For such is the heart of the Most Holy God, our Father. His heart is the heart of a father who has never turned away from his children.

When Ishmael asks for his father, I tell him of our Father in Heaven. I teach him to say that God is merciful, and to know that it is a sacred greeting to the source of life.

Without Ishmael, both I and my God would have no cause for existence. Without Ishmael there is no meaning to the universe: both the sun and the moon would be but the castaway marbles of the giants who inhabited the earth before the deluge.

The will of God it is, to sustain Ishmael, who with the free-spirited sincerity of child-like love runs towards his Father with open arms: to see that one rise again, to see him grow strong and independent, yet reaching gracefully towards the Divine even as a tree reaches towards the sun, loving its goodness and its warmth by nature, of its own accord. To see those arms reaching towards Him, that is what gives meaning to God’s own existence, to see the devotion of a son like Ishmael: that is why He took the trouble to create at all.

The Name of God we know just as well as it is known to the other family of Abraham. It is the Name meaning He Who Causes Becoming. That One is like a self-sustaining fire burning without wood and without fuel through all of the times and eternities. And the firstborn Son: he is the first spark that flew out of the fire, and the reason the fire sustains itself.

When the people of this century celebrate their Christmas, they celebrate in their infidel excess, without realizing it, the moment the spark flew out of the eternal God-fire.

What is the purpose of the God-fire? An artist can only paint so many stunning pictures upon the expanse, the abstract wilderness of colour of which the powerful eye in the sky has already sent back a million images to earth: how many such paintings can the divine eye make through its own projections into space, without getting terminally bored by its own perfection? An appreciative eye filled with the loving kindness of devotion, the eye of my Ishmael: that is what makes these things worthwhile to the Creator. He painted those pictures for his son to see in the fullness of recorded time, to see that his Heavenly Father was good.

He whose heart is composed of the purest God-fire, he who shall not bow to any demon or idol, nor shall he march to the dissonant tune of any stately human construct, but shall only recognize the One Who Causes Becoming as his ruler - he is who pleases the heart of our Father in Heaven. If He can find such a heart in humanity, He would know that it was all worthwhile: and sometimes in our human history even He thought that it could not be found, until the time of Ishmael, a son of a human woman born, but loyal and faithful just like the first spark of the divine.

“He will be a zebra of a man,” the angel said to me, back at the well when I dwelled among the ancients.

It is written in the Hebrew writings that the Lord our God would often consider saving his entire creation because of one righteous man. He is always searching for the true and unique: this one, my one and only, my Ishmael.

I am the appointed guardian of Ishmael. I am like a faithful dog who always sleeps with one eye open.

This is the work that I am doing here on this earth: therefore I am irreplaceable to God. There is no-one similar in womankind. I am immortal and indestructible because I belong to the Lord my God.

When Ishmael asks after his father, I tell him of his Father in Heaven. He Who Causes Becoming, the Self-Sustaining One.

Eye of the Desert

I am Hagar, mother of Ishmael, firstborn son of his father Abraham. We walk by ourselves in the desert without our people. Sometimes we get a bag of water at a tent of sympathetic nomads. Most of the time we walk alone.

At night, I stay awake. I watch over my tent while the little boy sleeps. I prepare slowly but surely for the end of recorded time. That is the day when the machines of the future will stand still, the tick-tocking counters not comprehending one another: the day when structures will disintegrate within themselves, vehicles snorting secretly as they come to a standstill in the middle of the road; the day when iron camels will glare sullenly as they shuffle past one another, grunting and shoving their way into the abyss, where to, nobody exactly knows.

That day shall come, it is near. It is a day of certainty, and I shall master that day on my knees with this work that I do here in the cold sand in the night. I call that holy day the day of the Lord, the day of his impatience. I seek that day with all my heart, in the sorrow of my soul.

I am not afraid of that day. I shall look it in the eye, I shall know it when I see it, and I shall be informed of its arrival. My heart leaps in my breast with joy when I see the day, because it is the great day of Armageddon, the end of the evils of all times, the day of the end of the order of humans and the beginning of the Order of the Divine.

Heavenly day, may you come on the north wind, and may I see you so that I never, ever have to think of our untimely demise again!

I must stay calm, wide awake, wide open, fearless and stern in my appointed task.

At the moment that I see in the future, there are all kinds of illnesses doing the rounds in the food chain. It is one of the many signs of the times. Frightening amounts of food are being recalled. Twenty millions’ worth, just in one day.

On what must the poor subsist when the frightened fat ones discard so much meat? I know that if I pray over the meat, it is safe to eat.

“Speak ye the Name of the Lord, and eat” - so the prophet shall decree, and what is good enough for the prophet, is always good enough for me.

At the end of the times, nine out of ten of the earth’s seeds are controlled by one entity, and it is named after the adversary of the Lord, they call themselves by the name, My Satan. They make a fish into a fruit, in this future that I see: they violate the copyrights of the Lord Almighty God. Such a thing is an abomination in the eye of the Creator.

I, Hagar, would rather crunch stones with my teeth before eating such things. The Lord our God can cause fruit juice to trickle from a rock if He pleases to do so, but the hand of man must not mock the hand of the Creator.

Every day I pack our food for the road, just in case. I make my preparations with fear and trembling, not because I do not trust in the Lord my God, but because of the track record of mankind. What do I have to fear from this day? I have done no wrong by the Lord. I have not resisted his will. I have not turned to idols before his Countenance, nor did I elevate any concept of human government, independence or self-government above his holy Name. Nothing in heaven or earth did I love more than the Lord my God, for He is the one who gave me Ishmael, and Ishmael is my all, my everything.

Ketchup for Armageddon - the novel: Afrikaans version

The author has offers from publishers in South Africa for the Afrikaans and English language versions of the novel Ketchup for Armageddon - Ketsjap vir Armageddon and is looking to have the screenplay version optioned. A strategic alliance has been formed between Cordis Trust Publications, Kreativ and Viva Interactive to enable international distribution of the book in 2 languages simultaneously.

There is considerable interest in the book within South Africa, due to the fact that it is the author's first novel - known for her poetry as the youngest published Arikaans poet in the history of South African literature, the novel and screenplay are new media for her. The author translates her own works and also writes her own screenplays without assistance from any established screenplay writers.