Would you travel back to a place, just for one more taste? I did. Whilst travelling up the West coast of Nicaragua I discovered a tiny bakery, so delightfully unassuming that it made the discovery of what was inside even more surprising. The best donut I have ever eaten in the world. Ever. Even now, 24 months after the first taste I'm salivating just remembering its glory. A thick soft warm doughy ring, the inside perfectly aerated and squishy like your favourite duvet. Sweet vanilla icing oozing over the curved edges and coloured sprinkles calling your name to take a bite.
This thing really left an impression on me. As a film director my mind started playing with how I would present this find to the world, what would sell the product and baker in a way that captured my experience and stayed true to what makes the donut so special. For now you’ll have to imagine this commercial. How great it would be to create something so fantastically epic for the most modest of companies!
*Starts*
We hear the tinkling of a doorbell as a seven-year-old Nicaraguan boy steps into a long thin shop with coloured paint peeling off the narrow walls. The rumbling sound of the bus he arrived in fades away in the street behind.
At the counter of the shop his wide eyes scan a glass cabinet and fall upon a fat donut. Pink and white icing creep down the sides of the rainbow sprinkled top.
The boy hands over a gold coin in return for a brown paper bag containing the donut.
[Flashback] : We are taken back to the boy’s house whereupon his grandfather’s weathered hand places the gold coin into the boy’s palm.
V/O: “Go on, you know the one.” Says the boy’s grandfather.
Paper bag in hand, we follow the boy as he races out of the shop and jumps on to the back of a local chicken bus.
CHATTER. NOISE.
The bus is packed to the rafters. Bags, crates and other objects seem to be bursting from the sides. People hang from the back.
Wheels spin.
As the bus speeds along a dusty track the boy’s grip loosens on the neck of the paper bag which falls open as a cloud of dust WAFTS inside.
The boy jumps off the bus and darts into a small square where people are dancing in traditional Nicaraguan dress. A lady grabs his hand and spins him around in one large swirling movement.
The boy wrestles with the paper bag to keep the donut from FLYING out of his grasp.
The boy escapes through the crowd and jumps into a small taxi boat. He thinks he has found respite but is met instead with a farmer and his peep of rowdy chickens flapping wildly in the boat.
Beaks peck and claws scratch at the paper bag as the taxi boat motors along a river.
The boy arrives at his destination, jumps out of the boat and races across an open expanse of farmland. He dips under a waterfall and darts between trees in the sprawling jungle.
Finally emerging into a clearing in front of the family home, the boy runs in and presents the donut eagerly to Grandpa. The boy and the paper bag look worse for wear after the morning’s adventure but the boy is excited to have made it back in record time.
The boy’s grandfather opens the bag, looks in expectantly and pauses...
He looks down at the boy.
The boy looks up at his grandfather.
PREGNANT PAUSE.
[Flashback] : We are taken back to the donut shop. The boys face is pressed against the glass cabinet and there is a reflection of the donut in his eyes.
The boy’s grandfather erupts into a huge smile, extracts the dusty, damp and feather strewn donut to take a large and satisfying bite.
The boy looks on in earnest.
After a beat he stops chewing, makes a knowing smile, and rips the doughy circle in half.
The boy’s grandfather leans over and offers the second piece to the boy who eagerly takes it into his hands and begins chomping away
They share the moment.
[Logo] : “Dia De Los Donuts”
[Super] : “Fresh no matter what”
*Ends*