Cecilia's got a degree in anthropology, you know?
She did her thesis on the Iban.
- Really? - Mmm.
Why did you choose the Iban to study?
I lived here until I was five.
Till Mother and Father couldn't stand me any longer
and shipped me off to school.
But I always remembered them.
The way you'd never see them arrive,
but then suddenly there they'd be, standing beside you
as if they'd been there since...
time began.
Although, for them, of course, time only began 53 years ago.
- Really? - Yes, the year Krakatoa exploded.
- That's their year zero. - Is that true?
How the deuce do you know that?
- Well, I listen. - Do you now?
Well, I can't wait to get stuck in and meet the Iban.
Shipperly's taken over from Teague...
chap I told you about.
Went doolally and ate his own toes.
I'll tell you something I bet you don't know.
Back in Victorian times, the young officers coming out here
were given a young woman from the local head-hunting tribes
to share their bed...
so they could learn the language quickly.
I hardly think so, darling.
Now you are having us on, aren't you?
No, that's true.
I've heard tell of it from a very old Iban.
- See? - Well...
if it did exist, I'm sure it was purely
a matter of convenience and no...
higher feelings were involved.
- Don't see why. - Surely you can't seriously believe
that a primitive head-huntress
and an English officer could experience love.
Not love, maybe,
but I'm sure they could feel a great deal.
Whatever an Englishman felt,
he would never let that get in the way
of his duty to the local people.
My Iban wouldn't think less of an officer...
"My Iban"? They're not your Iban.
They might be God's, but they're certainly not yours.
We've got enough bloody dictators in Europe, thank you.
- All I'm saying... - And all I'm saying,
is that an English officer
would never let his country down.
Nor his family.
Would he, Truscott?
No, sir.
So is she pretty?
Well, she's fairly pretty.
But does she have wings?
What happened to the spirits of your country?
They grew old and tired and packed their bags and left for England.
This is a land dispute between two Longhouses.
It's fiendishly complicated.
You must be sick of me following you around.
No, I know how interested you are.
At least this time we escaped the dreaded Shipperly.
He's harmless, but... he's like all men
who've been to an all-male school and college.
The only women they're comfortable with are their mothers.
He talks to me like I'm a Labrador.
I went to an all-male school and an all-male college.
Then something must've changed you.
Well...
yes. Being out here, I imagine.
So have you sorted out this dispute?
Yes, I think so, yes.
See, it's impossible to sort out the argument.
So if I decide for one side or the other,
it'll just seem unfair to them.
Pull!
Would you mind? That's it, perfect. Thank you.
Thank you.
Isn't she amazing?
What did she say?
There's not a precise English translation for that one.
Cecil, these children love having their photo...
She's wonderful. I wish I looked like her.
Hands higher, please.
That's it. Perfect.
Cecil, I don't think she wants her photograph taken.
- Just a couple more. - Truscott!
Go and see what's happening down there, will you?
Ask her to keep up that fierce expression, please.
- Cecil... - Truscott!
I told you to go and see what the devil's happening!
She won't understand.
She's Yakata.
You can tell by the turquoise bracelet.
I studied them.
She was bleeding through her skin.
Come away and wash your hands.
There's a dozen more dead bodies turned up at Laksai,
50 miles out of their territory.
I'd better go up river and have a look, hadn't I?
No, you hadn't!
It's dangerous enough up there without an epidemic.
That's my job.
They'll have your head as soon as look at you.
Besides he doesn't speak the language.
Well, I'll take Selima.
She speaks half a dozen languages.
And Belansai, no one's going to tangle with him.
Send that idiot Shipperly.
A few poisoned darts might liven him up.
I'll set out tomorrow morning, shall I?
Aggie, I can't send Shipperly.
You said yourself the man's an idiot...
If you're about to be killed, at least stay for dinner.
Terrific girl, Cecil. Isn't she?
Absolutely, yeah.
If you want a child properly educated,
you've got to send them back home.
But you can't be in two places at once.
And I thought it was my duty...
to stay with Henry.
Yes.
But they've done a terrific job on her.
We're delighted.
She knows all sorts of things.
And it means she's turned out very self-sufficient, very capable.
Exactly the sort of girl one wants to marry out here,
not some flimsy little miss who's never left England.
And of course...
she's ever so fond of you.
Well, she's lovely, like you say.
But I'm not sure that I...
Love her?
I don't think I knew what love was when I was your age.
I don't suppose you do.
Well, what is it like?
Well, it's, um...
it's companionship,
fellow feeling.
Now listen,
you want these schools for the Iban.
Henry'll help you. I'll see to that.
So...
what do you say?
I'm not really sure. This is all rather sudden.
Don't take too long thinking about it.
Neville's asked her to marry him.
She'll be gone by the time you get back from your trip
and you won't see her for two years.
I'm sorry about this afternoon.
I should have stopped her sooner.
Selima?
You had other lovers before me, didn't you?
Did you and they have what we have?
Yes.
They were men like you.
But...
I thought we had something special.
No, we fuck, that's all.
You're angry? You're not telling the truth.
I'm angry, that's why I'm telling the truth.
Half my blood is English.
That is more than your king and queen,
but for you, that is not good enough.
So Iban I'll be.
Rule me if you must, but nothing else.
Go ahead. Do your sex.
Don't mind me.
"Hands higher.
That's it.
Perfect."
"Dear Cecil,
Everything is going very well.
We've reached the edge of Yakata country.
Belansai calls them 'the invisible people.'
And even the Iban admit
they can blend into the jungle like no one else.
They're fierce warriors,
but they live as one big family.
Sharing is so much a part of their way of life
that they have no word for 'thank you.'
I look forward to seeing you when I finally come home on leave.
I'll finish this letter later."
It's not like any disease.
It's not famine... there's rice in the huts!
It's a white man with a rifle... aiming at you.
Listen...
He's gone now.
Thank you.
Can you track him?
- My God. - What?
I think this could be a new species.
It's like the buffalo leech, but bigger.
Would you mind just getting it off my back?
I don't want to hurt it.
Maybe they'll name it after you, sweetheart.
Can you remember where you were when it bit you?
No.
No, I can't remember where I was when it bloody well bit me,
because I was in the middle of the bloody jungle,
which looked like every other bit of bloody jungle,
full of bloodsucking,
bloodthirsty, bloody little bastards!
Good afternoon, Mrs. Bullard.
Idiot.
They come across the mountains from Dutch Borneo.
- Very difficultjourney. - That's pure silver.
They'll be making a fortune.
And it looks like they don't want any other Europeans to know.
Me get sickness.
They go away.
You'll be all right.
We'll take you down the river in the morning.
They say you brought the illness.
The Dutchmen told them.
What did you say?
I told them you are a god
and will cure them.
Oh. Good.
Ask them if they will eat with us.
The Yakata don't grow rice, do they?
So they must have traded for it.
The bastards.
The bastards! They wanted to clear the mining area,
so they put poison in the rice!
- Do we die? - No.
No, it's a slow-working poison, so it looks like disease.
So, my English friend...
do we arrest the miners?
What will the Yakata do if we tell them?
Kill them all.
Tell them.
Explosie.
When I found you lying there,
suddenly everything became clear.
I want to stay with you forever...
if you'll have me.
Where shall we run?
Run?
We can cross into Dutch Borneo.
There's no need for that. I love Sarawak.
But they'll stop us.
Oh, for God's sake, the English aren't barbarians.
I'll sort it out. Trust me.
I'll sort everything out, I promise.
I know my own people.
You want to marry her.
We say we've a right to be here because we're a civilizing force.
How can we let our officers sleep with the local women,
and not marry them?
You're not the first, you know.
Let me tell you something.
25 years ago,
I was a young idiot.
She was called Ipoh...
and I loved her.
But I made my decision,
and I never saw her again
until the day she died.
- You don't regret that? - I did what was right!
I did my duty, and so will you!
No. No, I won't.
It's a good thing your father didn't think that at Passchendaele!
Is it?
Maybe then he wouldn't have drowned in a shell hole
so some senile old general could get a knighthood!
God, you self-righteous little prick!
- You'll do what I say! - You let me...
Bit of an administrative crisis.
Yes, I know what's happened.
Everybody does!
I'd like a word with you in private.
Selima...
The English have sent word.
If you won't give him up,
they'll charge him with the murder of the white miners.
- Did you tell them? - No!
They will charge me as well.
That's why my father asks you.
Look, there's a way of doing things,
and if you change it, our little world falls apart.
- You're the one that told me... - For goodness sake!
Give her up and Henry'll send you home on a year's sick leave.
You can come back as if nothing happened.
Refuse and you'll spend the next 10 years rotting in prison.
And then we'll deport you
and you'll never see Sarawak, or her, again.
You can't do that.
You broke the law.
You can't go around murdering white men
just because you think they deserve it.
He could hang you for that.
But you'd ignore it if I do as you want?
You've a choice.
Make your mind up.
- I want to see her. - Send her a letter!
You've taught her to read, haven't you?
Stop him!
Idiot.
Selima?
Selima!
Where is she?
It's all arranged, isn't it?
- Isn't it?! - It's not as I thought.
Th-there's difficulties.
Help me!
I'm ordering you to help me!
You swore it would all work out.
Truscott, I am getting extremely fed up with you.
I'm too old to run through the bloody jungle all night!
Just give her up now.
- This is your last chance. - No!
Say you'll give him up.
You know what'll happen otherwise!
Once I start this, it can't be stopped.
John Truscott, I charge you...
- I'll do it. - No, no.
I'll marry at the Longhouse.
I told you it's not possible.
So?
Do you give her up?
I do.
I now pronounce you man and wife.
You may kiss the bride.
Ready!
We'll remember this song.
Always.
There is something I should say.
I know about your sleeping dictionary.
At least, I presume you had one.
Father thinks we women don't find out about such things.
But anyway, I don't mind.
I know how things are done out there.
And the good thing is...
at least you'll know what to do because I'm damned if I do.
What happened to her?
Oh, she married Belansai.
Your father wrote me a letter.
Was that before you proposed to me, or...
Oh...
No, I think it must have been afterwards.
Here we go, then.
"Dear Henry,
I talked things over with Cecilia again,
and we have decided to return to Sarawak.
She wants to be with you,
and I would be a coward not to finish the work I started.
I think the only way forward is to wipe away
the last couple of years and start life afresh.
I'm determined to make your daughter happy.
Yours sincerely, John Truscott."
East of the sun
And west of the moon...
I thought I'd organize a welcoming committee.
They're wonderful.
Welcome back to hell.
Shipperly.
Weather forecast for the next...
10,000 years is too bloody hot.
Ah.
...of the moon.
You're looking at the first Iban class,
the first Iban school.
Your dad would be proud.
If he saw the Iban choosing what they were taught, he'd have a fit.
For heaven's sake, he wanted to teach them Latin and Greek.
You know, I actually wasn't going to mention this for a while,
but I wondered if you might like to do some teaching?
Ow!
What in the world?
I thought that's what you wanted.
I thought that's what she would have done.
Neville told me about you and her.
Have you seen her since we got here?
No!
No, not since...
a year ago, or more.
He said she and her husband had a little boy.
Apparently they're very happy.
I want us to be happy.
Then why aren't we?
It's her, isn't it?
Yes.
She's very beautiful.
Isn't she?
In her own way, yes.
- What's that? - It's Famous, blind drunk.
In fact, blind, legless, daft, sick, smelly drunk
by the sounds of things.
You've got to fire him.
Cecil...
he's been with me since I arrived.
He doesn't like me. He preferred her, I can tell.
Hello?
Who's this?
This is your new cook. Henry sent him.
Mrs. Truscott tell Mr. Truscott...
- to give me the boot. - Thank you, Famous.
Thank you.
Did you do that?
Famous, take her into the kitchen and clean her up.
You do not do that.
You treat her with respect.
We're not all in love with our sleeping dictionaries, you know.
Tipong!
What did you say to her?
Oh, I told Tipong that if you hit her again,
she should wait till you're asleep,
then cut off your testicles with a kitchen knife.
They're very good at that kind of thing, the Iban.
Probably wouldn't even wake you. Now...
Henry sent me.
We've got to unbugger up your last month's work.
Cecil...
you know, I would have made her happy.
I told him we'd remember this song.
Don't be so pathetic.
You should forget all about this love business.
Marriages work far better without it.
You should concentrate on the school.
You like that.
He just needs a little time.
When was the last time he slept with you?
When was the last time he even touched you?
That's how you judge men.
Hello, darling.
Good evening, Mrs. Bullard.
You will excuse us, won't you?
You kissed me just to get one over on my mother, didn't you?
No. No, of course not.
Take one more reading before we go leave.
Right.
- Is the baby mine? - Oh, yes.
And are you open to bribery?
Oh, very much so.
So you'll arrange for us to meet?
I am one step ahead. I already make inquiries,
and she will not see you.
So you tell her Tipong has been beaten again
and needs her help.
Shipperly?
Shipperly I will send on a vital mission somewhere.
Somewhere famed for the size and quantity of its tiger leeches.