the hall, he's all the way at the bottom of the stairs, lolling against them like a drunken cowboy, his pageboy cap tilted rakishly over his eyes, and necking a
'Lost y'r shoes?' he slurs mournfully.
'It happens,' I say. It's not worth explaining.
'I think they're st'len. Everythin' gets st'len h're.'
'I think you're drunk. Want me to get you to bed?'
'Y'r bed.'
'You really up to facing the sunrise bouncing off Ponte tomorrow morning at 6 am?'
'Sh'ld knock it down.'
'Or get curtains. Come on, big guy.' I wrestle him to his feet, using the railing for leverage. And then we start making our way, very carefully, up six flights of stairs, the Mongoose scampering ahead.
As soon as I open the door, the Mongoose scoots inside and heads for the warmth of my laptop. I let him get away with it, this time, mainly because I'm preoccupied with shuffling Benoit inside one lurching step at a time.
I try to get him onto the bed, and realise it's going to be easier to drag the mattress onto the floor and just tip him onto it.
'Want'd t' talk,' he says, sprawling onto his back, narrowly avoiding concussing himself on the wall as he goes down.
'Plenty of time,' I say, pouring some bottled water into a tin cup, because the landlord has shut off the water again. I tilt it into his mouth and he gulps it down. I tuck him in and position a wastebin next to his side of the bed for ease of puking, then peel off my filthy socks and climb in next to him.
'Y'r feet are fr'zin,' he complains.
'At least they're not stolen.'
It's at that moment that the generator splutters and gasps and runs out of gas, plunging us into darkness, and saving me from getting back up to turn off the light.
8.
THE WARLORD amp; THE PENGUIN
The Untold Story of Dehqan Baiyat (2003)
User Rating: 7/10 (17,264 votes)
Directors: Jan Stephen Samara Khaja
Writers: Jan Stephen (narrator) Nikolai Wood
Interviews: Dehqan Baiyat Gul Agha Baiyat General Rashid 'The Wrestler' Dostum Lt. Corp. Al Stuart Matthias Weems Brigadier Jon Chafe
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Runtime: 180 minutes
Language: English / Dari / Pashto with subtitles
Company: League Pictures, London
Country: United Kingdom
Certification: Mature / Unrated
Genre: Politics / Culture / History
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound Mix: Dolby SR
Filming locations: Afghanistan, Pakistan, New York, London, Guantanamo
Release date: 9 October 2002 (UK) on BBC1
14 March 2003 (US/Worldwide)
Awards: Academy Award Best Documentary 2004 Sundance Film Festival 2003 International Documentary Association 2003 BAFTA 2004 Genie 2004 Golden Gate Award 2004
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Synopsis: Warlord. Icon. Patient Zero? The life and death of Dehqan Baiyat.
Full Summary: (SPOILERS) Dehqan Baiyat was a New York film student turned machine gun-toting, motorcycleriding Afghan warlord who became notorious in the late '90s, not for his opium trafficking or his brutal tactics in fighting both the Taliban and NATO troops – but for the penguin always at his side.
After rumours began circulating among British troops of a warlord accompanied incongruously by an Antarctic bird in a flak jacket, investigative journalist Jan Stephen tracked Baiyat down to the opium fields of the Helmand province and spent two years with him in desert and mountain hideouts, trying to uncover the mystery of the man and the bird.
This documentary tracks the life and death of Dehqan Baiyat. Descended from an Iranian clan that once fought against Genghis Khan, he became known, incorrectly, as Patient Zero for what was then called the Zoo Plague and, later, AAF or Acquired Aposymbiotic Familiarism.
Baiyat was filmed on several occasions at public
gatherings feeding his penguin strips of meat he claimed was the flesh of his enemies. It was said that he could torture a man without touching him. The rumours intensified: it was claimed to be black magic, genetic modification, Hollywood special effects. Or all of the above.
After the assassination of his penguin in a Taliban
ambush, his very public death by the 'black cloud' (or
Unfairly compared to Gaetan Dugas, the Canadian flight attendant alleged to have been at the centre of the spread of HIV in the US, Baiyat was, in reality, simply the most high-profile case in an epidemic that had nothing to do with disease.
Initially suspected to be the eccentric quirk of a charismatic and self-indulgent sociopath, other theories postulated that the outbreak of the animal phenomenon in Afghanistan was a result of the fallout of Pakistan's nuclear tests in the neighbouring Chagai Hills in 1998.
Now, it's believed that cases of the animalled may date back to as early as the mid-'80s, based on anthropological reports coming out of New Guinea, Mali and the Philippines. The earliest recorded case, uncovered in retrospect, was that of notorious Australian thug Kevin Warren, who was gunned down by police during an aborted bank heist in Brisbane with his 'pet' wallaby in 1986. Coming out of the animalled closet twelve years later, Baiyat was not so much the start of it all, as the poster boy.
But who was Baiyat really?
The film interrogates not only the mythos that sprang up around Baiyat in the turmoil and chaos of Taliban- led Afghanistan, but also everything we understand about the animalled and the ontological Shift that happened around him.
Featuring interviews with embedded journalists, mujahidin leaders, British troops, Taliban fighters and the Baiyat family, the film is an unflinching portrait of a man at the public centre of the Shift.
QUOTES:
'Why did I come back from film school in America? [Laughs] Because my father asked me to. Because this is my country. Because here I am a rock star. I have 18,000 men under my command. People respect me. Whole villages come to pay tribute. Because here I can fuck or kill whoever I like.'
'Think of it as my mascot. Let's say you have your lucky rabbit's foot. I have my Penguin. You keep your rabbit's
foot safe in your pocket. I keep my Penguin safe in
customised body armour.'
