DROP TO DRINK
FILM
EPISODIC FICTIONAL PODCAST
The entire idea for a movie came in a dream when I was 23.
In real life, in the year 2000, unbeknownst to me, there had been a production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Steven Dorf, in which the capulets were Muslim and the Montagues were Jewish. The production took place in the Middle East.
In the dream, there is a movie. And in the movie, a theatrical production of Romeo and Juliet is being produced in the middle east. The Capulets are Muslim and the Montagues are Jewish. The first twist- the actors in the play, he who plays Romeo and she who plays Juliet, fall in love. They have a baby before both getting killed. The movie/dream is the story of their child, thirty years later. He has grown up with an aunt in Ohio, completely estranged from his identity. He works in a water salination plant. In 2030, there is a water crisis in the Middle East. He is sent to start a desalination plant in the desert, offering good pay in Palestine, for anyone who wants it- giving an alternative way for Palestinians to help their families, other than violence.
The movie is done with threads of the Shakespearean language and references throughout.
Water is also a character in the movie. Its being a symbol in both Islamic and Jewish traditions, we see little vignettes of parables and poetry referencing water, from each of the religions.
When we first see the son, he is in the desert- somewhat of a No-Man’s land, feeling confronted for the first time with something he has been running from his entire life- his mixed, contentious identity, the conflict of his parts, and the great loss that orphaned him.
An elder mysteriously greets him in his time of confusion and begins to tell him a story. It is a great love story of a woman who played Juliet and a man who played Romeo… and how they fell in love. The elder telling the tail had played the Friar in the production who marries them. He is telling our protagonist the story of his parents. And this is our film.
It resolves with his realizing that peace is the peace he finds within himself.
Resolution of his parts.
That water is G-d. We, as humans can pollute it, but we can also clarify and cleanse it.
And though we are made of it, we still must take it in in order to live.
Vessels with which to do so - like religion - have been useful to us.
In the final frame, we see him using his own hands to cup the clean water and drink it into his own mouth.
He is the wisdom, and the peace, the answer, the love that he has sought.
I awoke and wrote it all down. The skeletal structure of it was crystalline in my mind. It continues to be a beloved outline that would be amazing to realize.
I am sharing the prologue with you here:
FADE IN:
EXT. GALAXY - DEEP SPACE
A vast field of stars.
We move through the blanket of space until we come to rest upon EARTH.
The Earth is boundariless, unified.
We move closer.
EXT. OCEAN - DAY
The ocean fills the frame. Vast. Gleaming blue. Almost pure light.
Against it, land appears unillustrious, insignificant.
We catch the ocean’s current and follow it as it divides and multiplies.
Rivers.
Streams.
Tributaries.
A spring.
EXT. WATER COLLECTION SITE - DAY
Opposite Vibe. LOUD Trucks.
Machines.
Pipes siphoning water. Human intervention.
We follow the water.
INT. FACTORY - DAY
The water moves through machinery.
Bottles on an assembly line.
BOOM.
An individual BOTTLE OF WATER is sealed.
SOUND OVERLAP:
A BABY WAILING at full force.
MATCH CUT TO:
INT. DELIVERY ROOM - DAY
The bottle of water fades into a NEWBORN BABY.
He is screaming, lungs wide open.
The baby is held in a doctor’s hands, freshly extracted from the mother’s body.
The umbilical cord is severed.
Silence.
The image FREEZES.
REWIND BEGINS.
Only the sound of a tape rewinding.
The umbilical cord reconnects.
The baby moves backward, feet first, returning through the birth canal.
OVER THIS, VOICE OVER:
RADIO ANNOUNCER (V.O.)
Newsy, factual.
The world is looking at water problems. This is not just a drinking issue, as virtually every major industry in the world depends on clean water. A Budweiser beer contains about eighty percent water. That does not include the seven gallons of water it takes to grow a bushel of corn for sweetener. To make one microchip, one hundred and fifty gallons of water are needed. Every car made requires up to forty thousand gallons of water just to make steel for the frame. For each tire, five hundred and eighteen gallons of water are needed. Growing enough food to feed a single person for one year takes one point five million gallons of water.
The sound of a RADIO DIAL SWITCHING STATIONS.
Another frequency comes in.
WISE ELDER (V.O.)
Calm. Grounded.
Each religion is a bottle of water. Dannon, Fiji, Evian, they have their own packaging, but look at the ingredients, it’s pure H2O, they are vessels to take in what we need. We are made of the stuff. Yet we need to imbibe if we are to stay alive.
[Water is the essence of everything. All life. It is what we are made of. We breathe in its vapors. Drinking it into ourselves sustains us. It is pure source, surrounding us, inside of us, is us. And yet sometimes we need a vessel to harness it and drink it in. Religions are bottles of water. Each with its own unique packaging. But check the ingredients of any single one. It is serving pure H2O.]
CONTINUED REWIND:
The mother moves backward off the hospital bed.
Onto a stretcher.
Down hallways.
Into a car with her husband.
Onto a city street.
She carries a shopping bag.
INT. GROCERY STORE - DAY
At the counter.
The woman suddenly clutches it, looking down.
The REWIND STOPS.
She looks up, eyes wide, realization landing.
WOMAN
Oh my God. My water broke.
SOUND OVERLAP:
Distant crashing waves.
FADE TO BLACK.