Ninevah.

Created by Joshua Mills, The Pitch 2012

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Description

Ninevah is an action/drama about one man’s journey of discovery: Joe Naples - a rep for a multinational pharmaceuticals company; currently distributing ARVs and HAART to communities struggling with the HIV epidemic. He's been in the game too long. His wife is fed up with never seeing her husband. Joe is fed up with never seeing the drugs go to those who need it most. Corrupt officials stash the medication in their garages stockpiling it for themselves. What does get delivered ends up poorly used or wasted. He ends up despising the very people he's trying to help. On his way to the airport for his next assignment Joe snaps. Instead of boarding his plane, he bribes his way onto an already overloaded 6-seater going the opposite direction. Then the storm hits. It's his extra luggage and weight that the pilot is fighting against. He leaps out of the plane to save the others and to end his bitter life. Only he survives. The rest of the film follows his 3 day journey back to civilisation. He gets seriously ill. An already struggling tribe rescues him. Joe's resentment and hatred of Africa wanes as he's on the receiving end of help.

Biblical Connection

Jonah 1-4 is the source for this film. Joe Naples is Jonah. Like the biblical prophet, Joe brings a life changing message - medication - to a people in need. But Joe is fed up of helping those who he thinks aren't grateful and don't deserve it. He escapes in the opposite direction, this time on a plane rather than a boat. The same storm comes. Joe sacrifices himself to safe the rest. It was his extra weight and luggage that was bringing the plane down. He lands in a lake, clinging to a log floating by. He's washed up on a bank. A tribe discovers him and takes him in. Instead of 3 days inside a whale, Joe spends 3 days with the tribe. There's a disease spreading through the tribe he knows his company has a cure for. He himself is in need of medical attention. He makes it through and vows to take the medication straight to those who need it most - bypassing the corruption & ineptitude at the top. The tribe is rescued - just like the people of Ninevah were spared destruction. But this is only temporary, and Joe soon slips back to resenting Africa.