Emidio, a man with a voice like weathered velvet and eyes that flicker with old joy, leans back in his chair, cradling a chipped coffee mug. He smiles as he recalls the moment:
“You know, there’s something about singing with your nieces that heals you, even when you didn’t know you were broken. They come running into the living room with these sparkly microphones they got from the dollar store, yelling, ‘Zio Emidio! Let’s sing!’ And who am I to say no?
They always start with that one song from ‘Frozen’—you know the one—and I pretend to groan, but inside I’m flying. I take the low harmonies while they belt the high notes with all the fire in their lungs. One of them, Chiara, she closes her eyes like she’s on stage at Sanremo. The other, little Lucia, watches my mouth to stay in tune—like I’m the maestro and she’s my student.
And when we finish, they collapse in a pile of giggles on the couch, like the concert of the century just ended. They don’t know it, but in those minutes, I’m not thinking about the rent, or the war, or how tired I feel. I’m just there—singing with two little stars who think I hung the moon.”
Title:Silent Water Written and Directed by: JCJ Starring: Emidio.ca as Dr. Leo Hirschfeld
Logline:
In a Nazi concentration camp, a Jewish dentist uncovers a chilling secret: the SS have begun adding fluoride to the prisoners’ water supply—not to prevent disease, but to pacify resistance. Forced to choose between complicity and rebellion, he risks everything to awaken a camp of the chemically subdued.
Tone & Style:
A haunting psychological thriller set against the stark and oppressive backdrop of WWII. The film blends historical drama with a surreal edge, capturing the blurred lines between science, compliance, and survival. Think The Pianist meets The Lives of Others, with a whisper of 1984 paranoia and psychological erosion.
Synopsis:
ACT I: THE ARRIVAL
Dr. Leo Hirschfeld (Emidio.ca), a Jewish dentist and chemist from Vienna, is deported to KZ Ravensbrück. Separated from his family upon arrival, Leo is quickly recognized for his professional skills and assigned to the camp’s infirmary. There, he meets Dr. Mengele’s assistant, a cold and ambitious Nazi scientist named Stoller, who tasks Leo with assisting in “hygienic interventions.”
Leo begins noticing strange shipments labeled “Natriumfluorid” being added to the prisoners’ drinking water. Stoller dismisses his curiosity, claiming it’s for dental health. But Leo, even in his grief and disorientation, senses something sinister.
ACT II: THE SILENCE
Over weeks, Leo observes the camp’s behavior shift—resistance dwindles, fights vanish, and even whispered plans of escape are forgotten. Prisoners become lethargic, compliant, dreamlike. He keeps notes in a hidden ledger, documenting symptoms and collecting water samples.
One night, he secretly tests the fluoride concentrations. What he discovers chills him: dosages far beyond medical necessity, levels shown in pre-war literature to sedate the mind.
Leo begins to quietly warn a few prisoners—an ex-professor, a young Polish courier, a Roma poet. But they look through him, dulled and indifferent.
ACT III: THE RISING
Stoller catches on. Leo is dragged into an underground lab where Stoller reveals the “true science” of chemical control—Nazi plans to pacify entire cities post-conquest through water. He gives Leo a choice: collaborate, or die. Leo feigns compliance.
Desperate, Leo turns to an unlikely ally—an old SS nurse with a dead son and fading faith in the Reich. She helps Leo poison one of the fluoride tanks with a stimulant compound, hoping to rouse a section of the camp.
For one night, something shifts. A brief uprising. A spark of chaos. A woman screams, “We’re awake!”
But it’s too late. The SS crush the moment. Leo is arrested and tortured. His tongue is cut out to keep him silent.
EPILOGUE: AFTER THE FALL
The war ends. The camp is liberated. Among the liberated is the Roma poet, half-crazed but humming a tune Leo used to whistle. She finds Leo’s hidden notebook buried in the infirmary floorboards.
The final scene shows her testifying decades later at an obscure tribunal on chemical warfare, holding Leo’s notebook.
