The Official Shifting Sands Website | A Film by Simon Birkenhead







	The screenplay and synopsis of Shifting Sands are the property of Simon Birkenhead and may not be copied, reproduced or quoted in any form without prior agreement.

	Everybody thinks Jayne's weird. She's quiet, solitary, with a mind of her own - the antithesis of what her social group expects from a young woman. Even her boyfriend, Tom, is having second thoughts. He's been forced to keep the relationship quiet in fear of the humiliation some of his friends may subject him to if they discover the relationship.

	Tom is especially keen that his friend Alex does not find out about the relationship. Alex deliberately antagonises Jayne at every opportunity; for him, Jayne is a social out-cast, there to be made fun of. He doesn't even attempt to come to terms with Jayne's individuality; rather he prefers to make Jayne conform to his image of how she should behave. So, one evening, when he is invited to a party by one of Jayne's house-mates, he taunts her into sleeping with him, for a bet with his friend Pete.

	Jayne discovers that she's pregnant, but feels she can't tell Tom. Their relationship is unstable enough as it is. The only person that she feels she can turn to for support is Dan, one of her house-mates.

	But Dan has problems of his own. An old friend, a former boyfriend, Bean, has arrived in town. Their accidental reunion, on a bridge, is tense; the memories of their past relationship still linger. Dan still loves him but feels he cannot admit to his homosexuality. Like Jayne and Tom, Dan succumbs to the societal pressure to behave in a manner acceptable to others.

	Jayne's a pianist, a talent unknown to Alex, and that evening performs a recital. Dan has persuaded Tom to patch things up with Jayne and invites him along to talk to her after the concert. Jayne's other house-mate, Debbie, who's always on the pull, has dragged along Bean, but without telling Dan. And to Jayne's shock, Alex also appears. He's discovered that Jayne is going out with Tom and is worried that she will tell him about what happened at the party. He blackmails her into keeping her mouth shut by threatening to tell Tom about the baby, which he assumes to be Tom's.

	Tom is getting suspicious and angry with Alex's interfering in their relationship. He confronts him after the concert and in the ensuing argument reveals that he and Jayne had never had sex. Alex realises that he is the father.

	The antagonism reaches a climax once they have returned hom after the concert, when Jayne finally confronts Alex with the truth, and the accusation that she was a victim of date rape.




Copyright Simon Birkenhead 1994 \| shiftingsands@simonbirkenhead.com