A Treasure on Bird Island (1952) - full transcript

When I look at the sky as
the birds are flying away,

I do not want to leave you,
my nest in my native land.

But I have to go with them.
It is autumn and the time is here.

In here it will be very cold.
Here will be snow and frost.

We are flying to hot countries
where the hot sun always shines.

Come spring we will return,
just as everyone wishes us to.

The people here are nice
and they do not destroy our nests.

We sing for them each day:

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

We fly over the vast sea
to a fairytale island.

Over there we live with people as well.



They work and hunt
and they, too, are nice to us.

They do not destroy our nests.

We sing for them each day:

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

The trip over the sea to the
fairytale land is long.

we have been up here for days,

our wings going numb.

Finally! We are here!

Hello, our little island! You are still
as small in the middle of white sea foam.

And the people here are always happy.

Hello dear people.

We have been flying to you for so long.
How we were looking forward to this!

We have good friends here.
They do not destroy our nests.

We will sing sweetly for them.



Chirp, chirp, chirp.

Whoever may this boy be?

Do we know him?

Who is he?

It is little Al??ek, a fisherman.

How he has grown this summer!

We like him more and more.

He does not destroy our nests.
He understands bird songs.

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

Hello dear Al??ek.

Now we are all back here.

Talk to us for a while,
perhaps without a fairytale.

What has been happening here?

You have missed us, right?

Do not frown. Is your
net full each time?

Swallows, my darlings.

There are none better than
you in the whole world.

You soar from the sky
to the white foam

and sing to us from early morning.

Now I will tell you,
as is surely your wish,

what happened when you left.

When you left in the spring, it was
sad here on the island without you.

You were somewhere overseas,and we
lived here without a single song.

Everyone here missed you, but
none more than me, dear swallows.

Instead of your songs

the town was filled with
noises made by people.

From the forge came sounds of hits.

Whoever wished to work had a lot to do:

the shoemaker made shoes
as people needed them,

the potter made beautiful
vases out of clay.

The carpenter dilligently
worked on wood,

having started working as soon as he
woke up in the morning.

The weaver weaved strong sheets,

the baker baked bread and such.

Each of them was good at something.

They helped each other out.

Everyone liked the island.
The soil was fertile and generous.

The soil was quite generous indeed.

And the sea was giving as well.
From the early morning

fishermen were meeting up on the sea.

And in the evenings they had full nets.

For the fish they got shoes from the shoemaker,
strong ropes from the ropemaker,

sails from the sailmaker
and bread from the baker.

They worked without toil.
Everyone had what they needed.

When you were overseas
we lived here without songs.

Everyone missed you,

but none more than me, dear swallows.

I only had the pelican left,

a giant among birds,

but also among troublemakers.
All in all an unusual bird.

No use even talking about him.

Life flowed just like the golden
clouds above water.

We all liked each other
and we lived in peace.

But once, while fishing, the waves
carried me further than ever before.

Now I shall tell you what fate had
in store for me.

Not only for me, however, but for
everyone that are on the island with me.

And in that dark moment I
came face to face with fate.

And from the moment I saw
that beautiful ship

I became ashamed of my boat
and angry at life.

Should I, Al??ek, a fisherman,

fight the sea for those
few fish until I die?

It is better to just eat and sleep,

and listen to beautiful music.
I knew just how to do it.

By finding a treasure. But where?

On the bottom of the sea!

There of course.

I could find pearls there.

I will start looking right away!

And so I became a pearl hunter.

Underwater, there is a beautiful world.

One cannot even look at it all.

But such a pity!

There is only water in there.

And you almost drown
before even seeing the beauty.

I was returning home in the evening

with an empty net and
hunger on top of it.

And hunger on top of it.

I have neither pearls nor fish.

What will I eat for breakfast tomorrow?

Without fish I will not get bread.
I should have just fished, yes.

But I will wake up in the morning
and we will see how things go.

A few apples can last me a whole day.

Foolish is whoever frowns at the world.

But I am not like that.

And today I am sure I will

find a beautiful pearl.

It is terrible to be caught
in a net like a fish.

How to explain this?

They will make fun of me.

And once again I return
with an empty net

and plagued by hunger.

But I do not like to give up.

What is in it for me to fish and
then give my fish for bread and shoes

and stay poor?

If only I found a pearl.

I would live like a prince:

eat well, sleep well,

in short I would do nothing.

But what to eat tomorrow?

It is hard to fool hunger.

A watermelon is enough for a day.

I will return all that I have taken just
as soon as I am king. The most powerful.

The wealthiest. Right after
I find the pearl.

Today I will. I am sure.

Something big will happen.
I will get unbelievably lucky.

Even now I am shaking in fear.
Who would want to remember that?

I will rather fish again.

Better to be a fisherman than a king.

I returned to my work again.

The time flowed nicely.

With the fishermen I fished and sang.

But sometimes I had a desire
to be as wealthy as a king.

The picture of that beautiful ship
could not be chased out of my mind

even by a shark.

That is quite something.

It is no one other than

Ibrahim the Pirate himself.

There is so much I know about him.

He invades and loots ships
and hurts people however he can.

He steals goods, kidnaps kids
and sells them to Turkey.

And I now have here before
me the terrible Ibrahim.

But how does a terryfying pirate
get by without a ship?

He probably lost his ship in the storm

and only managed to save himself.
I will make sure he lives

so he can one day go back to
a respectable life.

I will not just leave him here.
Hopefully he turns to a decent job.

We will see how it goes.

It would seem that this terrible
pirate thought he was dying.

To reward me for being nice to him

he told me that once upon a time
he hid gold on the island.

He gave me a map that would surely
lead me to the treasure

right there, at that mark.

Not a bit closer or a bit further.

And I ran with the map home to
my two friends, excited.

After all, I cannot carry
a treasure by myself.

We are all loyal friends,

neither one will tell anything.

Neither one of the three of us is a
snitch. We will not say a single word.

Not a word to anyone.

To stop the shouting and arguing,

the oldest one of us gives out advice.

Be smart and stop fighting.
No one is taking it away from you.

Let us divide it. Trust me,
everyone will get enough gold

to live like a prince until they die.

We listened to this smart
advice and got together.

Together we loaded up the treasure
and together we drove it back home.

We were nice to each other and praised
the cleverness of the old man.

Now we will just eat and sleep,
be happy and have fun.

And so the treasure was soon taken
to an old abandoned fort.

The treasure will stay there for now
and the three most honest men

will divide everything fairly
like between friends.

And the others can only look.

However, they would prefer to be dividing
the treasure like those three instead.

Fafar, the clever old man

who gives advice to everyone.

Abu, who never makes
mistakes while counting

can add up even thousands.

Abubitrz, so fair it made
people wonder.

Those three are dividing the gold.
And those in front of the gate

are watching those three.
It is a nice spectacle.

And the others in the street are
all laughs and cheers.

Not a single cloud of anger.

Just a lot of sun and singing.
Each one of them is rich.

A horseshoe. But why is it here?

The blacksmith silently thinks about it.

There is no need for a man as rich
as me to make horseshoes and nails.

Now it is all different.

But it is useless to be angry.
Out with all this old junk!

The shoemaker, just like the blacksmith,
threw out all sorts of things.

Now he can live without working,
after all he is now rich.

The potter also had a lot of things
which he broke and threw out as well.

They all had the same idea.

They are rich so why should they toil?

Why work?

The baker also let it all go.

Why should he rush and work
at night? He will just sleep.

It was a beautiful morning

and everyone on the island was asleep.

This was no small change. Just
yesterday there were busy craftsmen,

fishermen and farmers here.

But from yesterday evening there
are only rich men here.

They sleep as they wish.

And so the women also woke
up later than usual

and went shopping for food.

And suddenly there is not a single

piece of bread anywhere.

There is not a single apple,
nor a single fish.

There is nothing to buy.

The fishermen also like to sleep
and dream sweet dreams

rather than fish the whole
day and fight the sea.

They are rich, have a lot of gold
and so they do nothing at all.

They dream of a wonderful life.

They sleep as deeply as the baker does.

Not a piece of bread anywhere and
the blacksmith is already hungry.

And to forget about it he
goes to watch the treasure.

Dividing the treasure is not easy.

The work, the thinking,

what to put on which pile.

Of those outside everyone
wants the best for themselves.

There is a lot of shouting and chaos.

My eyes widen in surprise.

At the sight of all that gold,
former good friends

behave worse than caged tigers.

What has gotten into those people?

Now the best thing to do is leave
quickly before getting hurt.

The town is also different.

Everyone is asleep
and dreaming about that fortune.

And so Hassan, the ropemaker, let
work be and is sleeping lazily.

And Ale, a gardener, is dreaming
of building palaces,

gardens, and beautiful parks,

all of it without working of course.

So what if they are plagued by hunger?

Today everyone is hungry.

Nobody on the island
wants to work today.

The baker sleeps in peace,
dreaming of wealth too.

He will just sleep and sleep.

And Omar, a tailor, is thinking and
daydreaming just like this

when he suddenly sees something.

A bone from the garbage.

That is all the food
that is left in here.

The tailor is hungry. This bite to eat
would surely appease his stomach.

It would be a waste of bone
to leave it to the dogs.

That was quite a sight to see.

Omar, a man like few others, was
a completely different man today.

He fights the dogs as
if he were one too.

What a terrible sight!

How come that there used to
be enough of everything

and today there is barely one bone.

It is all like it was before.

The sea, the sun, the
houses, the trees,

but the people have changed.

They do not work, they are jealous
ever since the treasure was uncovered.

Is it possible for gold
to have such dark power?

What a chaos! Great neighbors fight

tooth and nail for a small fish.

How come no one can take their
boat out to the sea anymore?

In the sea there are thousands of fish!

The treasure creates problems.

We were better off without it.

So...

I am the one to blame for it.

I was the one to find the pirate.

Now I know what to do to
have peace here once again.

I will just go to the pirate and
have him leave with all that gold!

So I rushed home. The pirate
was still living with me.

He was also plagued by hunger

in my house where the terrible
pirate Ibrahim hid.

I had a heart to heart with him.

I told him how bad it has gotten. Asked
to have him take the treasure away.

Begged him for those people who now
hate one another beacause of his gold.

I did not have to beg for long.
He was, perhaps, already planning

to take the treasure himself.

He was a man of action!

It was exactly noon while
we were sailing to the old fort,

an appropriate time for our task.

The sun was so hot that everyone
fell asleep as soon as they sat down.

And so they were all sleeping
in front of the gate.

Hopefully everyone inside the
fort will be asleep as well.

Such loud noises.

Why is that pirate acting
as if he were here alone?

As if he were here alone?

Those in front of the
gate will wake up!

I will just quickly
look over there.

It would be better if I ran
away before they found out.

They would say that I am
in cahoots with Ibrahim

and I do not like that.

It came out.

Oh no! Those in front of the gate have
noticed that something is happening inside.

The pirate is probably done.
But what now? What now?

That is a problem.

What kind of spectacle to use to
distract those in front of the gate?

Oh yes! Now I know what to do!

The fishermen almost died when they saw

how the boat sank and the entire treasure disappeared in the sea and in the waves.

Now it is lost forever. Forever.

Those desperate fishermen
will never see it again.

Only the pirate managed to save
himself. Only Ibrahim the pirate.

There is no point in going after
him. The treasure is gone

and so the fishermen turned the boat
around, very unhappy and dejected.

They sailed back to the island

and the waves carried the pirate
somewhere far away once more.

There, as we all know, a new
adventure is awaiting him.

Those on shore are eagerly
waving to the boat.

One of the fishermen stood up
and called out in a sad voice:

Our gold has drowned.
We are poor once again.

What a pity.

Everyone was desperate.

Oh how much they fought.

Oh how much they starved.
Just to have nothing now.

They had no other choice but to go back

to what they once found worthwhile.

And so they returned home.

Just like the blacksmith, who now
stands sadly in his forge

and thinking that this is
the end of dream castles,

that this is the end of dreams
of wealth and relaxing.

Now the ordinary life will start
once again. The ordinary daily work.

And so started a new day when everyone

returned to work as poor as before.

Before the sun was even up, the fishermen
once again set out to fish.

To that vast sea. Just like before.

And by the time the sun was up, the farmer
was once again working in the field.

And when the sun shone,
the first fishing boats

were returning to the port.

Suddenly everything is busy,
alive and, as before,

everyone is nice to each other.

And suddenly everyone sees

that hunger and misery have disappeared,
along with hate and selfishness.

Happiness cannot be paid for by gold.

And now everybody knows
how to live and be happy.

To do for others what they need
with happiness as before.

My dear swallows,

all this really happened here

while you lived far away in the north.

Now we live here in happiness.

We all work hard,

whether in a field, in a workshop,
at sea or on the island.

We are all one family here.
Everyday we help each other

and we have had enough of gold forever.

It only brought us problems.

We know what true happiness is.

Let the gold lay on the
bottom of the sea.

The end