Primož Jakopin
THE VOYAGE OF MARY ANN
Film about caves and caving
Screenplay Synopsis, 2008

          The main character of the movie is Mary Ann, a girl of Slovenian descent, who has graduated from college and returns home at the beginning of summer to her family — the parents Tom and Sally, younger sister Barbara and older brother Jeff. Tom has Slovenian grandparents, yet nobody in the family can speak Slovenian. At college Mary Ann got attached to a boyfriend, who could not decide between her and her best friend and in the end left with a third girl. Barbara shows Mary Ann around and introduces her to her boyfriend Michael, a caver and a climber. The girls get a brief training in single-rope climbing technique and Mary Ann is especially enthusiastic. At home a letter from Slovenia is waiting for Mary Ann. Her distant cousin and penfriend Tina sent an invitation for the wedding of her sister Marija. Travel to father's homeland had long been on Mary Ann's wishlist and as her new job only starts in September she decides to go. Aunt Gretchen gives her a lift to Chicago aboard a small plane, and from Ljubljana to the village, where Tina lives, Mary Ann again takes a ride on a two-seater plane.
          Tina welcomes her at the airfield, the ice is quickly broken and at Tina's home it becomes clear to Mary Ann that blood is thicker than water. There are four days to Marija's wedding and Tina decides to show Mary Ann the best of Slovenia, in three days. Tina is a nature lover and a caver so they skip the cities but visit the Kolpa river canyon, floating river mills on Mura, Logarska dolina mountain valley, Lovrenc lakes on Pohorje plateau, Šumik waterfall, Nanos windy mountain, the coast - Debeli rtič sand beach and Moon bay, Postojna cave, Lake Bled, Peričnik waterfall, Vrata mountain valley and Sleme plateau with the view of the Jalovec mountain. Mary Ann likes what she sees and just can not believe why her ancestors left this country. Marija's wedding follows at the Ljubljana City Hall. Tina's mother insists that Mary Ann also participates at the bride's bouquet throwing. It unexpectedly lands in Mary Ann's hands. A week has remained till the flight back and Tina offers Mary Ann to accompany a group of cavers to a mountain top, above a large Mediterranean bay. There is a group of five: Evan, team leader, Tina, Marko, Rok and Nina. On top of the mountain there is an entrance to a deep pit which leads to a cave with a lake. The cavers hope that it is connected to a cave system in the valley below the mountain. Their task is to check if the ropes, installed during the big winter expedition, have survived the spring rains so that they could be used by a diving team at the end of the summer. Evan also hopes that the summer droughts, triggered by the global warming have lowered the water level in the lake so that some dry passage to a lower cave would open up. For this purpose the cavers carry along two small inflatable boats.
          Tina and Mary Ann board a train and along the way the other four join them. They exit at a small train station in the middle of the forest. Along the path they pass a blowhole, two natural bridges above the riverbed and the spring cave at the end of a canyon. On a mountain trail, just below the peak, a loose stone hurts Nina's ankle. Mary Ann volunteers to accompany her down to the valley, but Nina needs firmer support and so Rok decides to come along too. That would leave just three to descend into the abyss, Evan, Tina and Marko. Tina tries to talk Mary Ann into joining in. The two boys, so she says, are not problematic, none has a girlfriend as they devote all their spare time to caving, but Tina is still afraid to go alone with the two. Mary Ann would like to help and the girls persuade Evan, who is responsible for the safety, to accept Mary Ann to the team. She gets the caving gear from Nina. Rok and Nina depart while the others spend the night in a tent for a fresh caving start in the morning. At sunrise there is a beautiful view of the sea gulf, to which most of the precipitation from the mountain flow underground. Marko explains that there are no water caves along the coast as it sank by 150 feet in the postglacial period. All the springs, so called vruljas, are submerged.
          Mary Ann needs help while rebellaying in the first shafts of the deep cave, but later on she is with Tina. They had a single accident in the last shaft when Tina lost the bag, attached to her waist and the bag has hit the rocks from the height. The most important part of the contents, one of the two boats, survived the fall. At the lake they set the tent up and, as the water is nearly two feet lower than in the winter, decide to check the other side of the lake. Evan and Marko depart in a boat, they find an underwater passage, but return as they do not have the scuba gear. Tina and Mary Ann make a stroll along the banks and discover a hall with a nice velvet pillar and lots of low side passages. They are all blind. On return Mary Ann finds a narrow passage to a tunnel which ends with a rock wall, too high for the girls to climb. Evan and Marko return and help Mary Ann climb up. She discovers a continuation. They decide to return to the tent where they spend the night. In the morning a strange scene is to be seen in the tent — Evan, with closed eyes, is holding Tina's head and gives her a kiss. They wake him up and it turns out that in his dreams he was a goalie in a soccer match. At the end of the game there was a penal kick against his door. He managed to catch the ball and, as his team now won, kissed the ball.
          After breakfast the newly discovered tunnel leads thru a series of flowstone-decorated halls to a passage into the lower cave level. It begins with a shaft and continues into a long muddy, but picturesque gallery. At the end there is a vertical drop into a large hall, too deep for the rope they have. Marko discovers a bypass between the rocks. Tina's compass, used to check the direction from time to time, points steadily to the northwest, which was expected. At the other side of the bypass there are two lakes, and in the lower one there is plenty of olms, white cave water lizards. They are a sign of the water table. It seems there is no continuation so the party decides to have a good meal before return. Yet Marko and Mary Ann discover an opening in the wall above the lake. Marko climbs to it but, after successfully attaching the rope to a rock horn, slips and falls down. He lands on the soft sandy bank and survives. During the fall he faints for a little while and a sea scene pops up in his mind. He is resting on the sand while Mary Ann is playing with a little girl, their daughter. Mary Ann wakes him up in the cave with the same words used at sea. He is shattered and surprised. Evan tries to detach the rope from below but fails. So he climbs up to release the rope and discovers a passage to a lovely hall, full of crystal flowstone formations. It leads to an underground creek..
          He returns and everybody is eager to see the creek he discovered, better to spend the night there than on the shore of the muddy lake. At the creek they inflate the boats. Evan and Tina move on to explore the banks downstream on foot while Mary Ann and Marko stay at the boats. Marko's words lead to a kiss. Evan and Tina find the way on and they depart on water, Evan and Marko in the larger boat, Tina and Mary Ann in the smaller one. The flowstone-decorated water tunnel is followed by a low passage and a confluence, where the creek joins a larger one. The water temperature, 7 deg. C, is higher than the temperature of the lake below the shafts. Further downstream the cavers arrive to a large lake where they split. The girls continue along the lake while the boys explore a side water tunnel. The latter leads to a dry tunnel which brings the boys above the lake with the girls. The lake ends in a narrow shallow stream and a sink, too narrow to pass. Above the sink there is an old riverbed and they arrive to a minor waterfall with a syphon. They follow the only remaining lead, a high dry tunnel with windows above the water. As they have no more rope to reach the water they move on. After a while the tunnel ends below the ceiling of an immense hall. From below the thunder of river rapids is heard. Down the steep slope the cavers climb to a riverbed, full of large black boulders. From the size of the river and from its temperature, 13 deg. C, they conclude that something went amiss with the direction of their journey. Evan checks the compass and discovers that the needle got stuck during the fall of Tina's bag. He puts it back in order and finds out that the river is flowing directly to the south, to the Croatian side, towards the coast.
          Soon they reach a large waterfall. They pass it at the side and embark the boats to find a suitable camping place downstream. Away from the thunder they discover that the water is getting warmer and warmer. Slowly they reach a side tunnel that ends in a round hall where the water temperature is 23 deg. C. As the water is also salty it is clear that they are within reach of the sea. They check the walls of the hall that descend steeply into the water. Marko takes his clothes off, jumps into the water and checks the depths with a scuba lamp. He disappears from sight for a while and reports that he has seen a lot of black fish and that he found a tunnel, passable with scuba gear. They return upstream and spend the night on the riverbank. In the morning Evan and Tina discover there is only one full sleeping bag beside them, and that the other is empty.
          After the breakfast Marko would like to see the warm round hall once again, but Evan and Tina object, it is of no use. Mary Ann volunteers to accompany him while Tina and Evan decide to stay and wait for them. When the couple's boat arrives to the round hall, daylight greets them, with rays of sunlight, reflected from the bottom of the lake. Marko admits to Mary Ann that he saw some strange light above him during his last dive in the evening, yet he did not know what that could be. Now he is sure it was the moon that he saw. Underwater passage is not deep, they tie the boat to a rock pier, undress and swim over to the other side. The sun below a mighty stone arch of a coast cavern greets the couple, and a wide, clear sea horizon.

Primož Jakopin

Ljubljana, Wickliffe, February 10, 2008. Spelling of 4 names changed in April 2020.


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