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Eitan Mansuri

Producers:

,

Omri Dekel-Kadosh

Water Level

Lab Edition

1

2022

LOGLINE

Water Level” is a dark, intense psychological-thriller taking place in the single location of the SUFA (“Storm”), an Israeli Navy missile boat. The show follows the SUFA combatants as they sail out for a secret mission, to an unknown destination, a journey which will spiral out of control and catapult the combatants to a slow drift out in the ocean, towards an abyss of madness, caught in the inevitable trajectory of collision - with each other.

SYNOPSIS

OMER (19), a poet in the body of a hoodlum, fresh out of his grunt-work training at the Navy training camp, arrives at the SUFA missile boat, the most combat-oriented boat of the “Flotilla 3” Squadron - and his home for the next two years. Omer is a highly motivated soldier, intent on making his mark during his combat service and proving that he’s just as good of a soldier as his father was. SHUSHAN (21), the senior Electronic Warfare Controller, and the ship's “prom king”, oversees Omer’s induction process. Omer is supposed to eventually replace Shushan, who’s expecting to go on his end-of-service leave upon returning from the secret operation they’re about to ship out to this coming Saturday. No one knows much about the operation, but the rumor going around is that it’s an operation of unprecedented magnitude; even battle seasoned Shushan seems excited about it, and about the fact that it’s the last sail of his army service.
Omer and Shushan discover that they’re more alike than they initially thought, and a true friendship develops between them; Shushan helps Omer acclimate and he guides him through the naval “jungle” of the ship, while Omer enables Shushan to express, for the first time, his more artistic sides, and imagine his life after he’s released from the army. However, during his first days on the ship, Omer realizes that things don't exactly work there the way he imagined they did. Except for his friendship with Shushan, Omer’s first week in the ship is a relentless claustrophobic hell, plagued by loneliness, never ending tasks, humiliations, starvation, lack of sleep and harsh adjustment to the social power dynamics reminiscent of the hierarchy structures of maximum-security prisons. But Omer has no complaints, for even though he’s going through the “fresh-meat grind”, he sees how other fresh-meat soldiers who were not lucky enough to have been taken under Shushan’s wing, like “radar” AVRIAN, have to endure constant harassment, both physical and psychological, doled out by GERBI, the most senior soldier on the bow, and the one who terrorizes the young newcomers, who are caught between his abuse and the abuse of GARDUSH (23), the sadistic DNC Officer (Discovery, Navigation, and Communication) and the Lieutenant Captain of the ship who makes it his mission in life to discipline and police the young newcomers.
After these first few nightmarish days, in which Omer is pushed to the limit - it finally happens - the SUFA ships out to sea. Omer watches the combatants work together for the first time, in complete coordination and harmony, and feels like he has a chance. However, during the night shift, while Omer and Shushan man their stations, Gardush decides to give Shushan a hard time for nodding-off over the Electrical Warfare system. Gardush yells at him, humiliates him - but Shushan retaliates, with vengeance, and yells back at him: without the stripes on his shoulders, he’s nothing but a privileged spoiled brat everyone would bitch-slap around. Gardush is shocked. He slowly approaches Shushan, while only Omer and “radar” Aviran are watching, and SMACKS HIM ACROSS THE FACE. Shushan loses control, and pounces on Gardush, PUNCHING him in the face and BREAKING HIS NOSE. Omer and his friends can hardly pull them off each other. Gardush promises Shushan: When I'm finished with you, you'll never get out of the army. That very night, BOROCHOVITZ (35), the gung-ho Captain of the ship, court-martials Shushan. Gardush doesn’t let
anyone else make their case. He lies and says that Shushan attacked him first. No one says anything to challenge Gardush. Shushan’s stunned. He looks at Omer, his last hope, waiting for him to say something, but to no avail. Omer’s scared of speaking up. He freezes. Shushan is accused of assaulting an officer. He’s sentenced to three months in military prison to be served upon their return, and his army release is delayed by 90 days. Shushan, the most beloved man on the ship, can’t believe that in the moment of truth none of his friends stood up for him. After the trial concludes, Omer tries to apologize to Shushan, who, in return, pushes him aside, refusing to listen to his apology.
Night; and the SUFA is slowly sailing toward the Eden Bay. The ship is in cruise mode, the soldiers are sleeping, but Omer can’t fall asleep. He volunteers to take over for one of his fellow combatants and performs a sailors-count in his stead; makes sure no one has fallen off the boat. Following protocol, he counts one soldier at a time, going through all the ship’s sections — but when he reaches the stern, he’s surprised to find that Shushan’s not in his bed. He continues on to the steering room, and slowly pushes opens the heavy iron door. In there, right above the steering wheels in the back, he’s suddenly horror-struck to discover Shushan HANGING from the ceiling, his lifeless body swaying lightly. Stunned by the hideous discovery, Omer reports the incident to Borochovitz, the ship’s captain. But Borochovitz can’t afford to let this complication jeopardize the operation, for his promotion depends on its success. He orders Omer to store the body in the ship’s cooling room (where the food is kept and where bodies are supposed to be stored according to protocol) and informs his soldiers that due to the ship’s strategic location (which might be exposed if they contact headquarters) and due to the rare window of opportunity they have before them - Navy boat SUFA will proceed as planned.
Omer, however, cannot just move on. He’s haunted by guilt. Something about Shushan’s sudden suicide doesn’t feel right to him. He decides to try and get to the bottom of what led Shushan to end his life in such a tragic way. He finds Shushan’s smartphone, which Shushan smuggled into the boat against the rules, and starts looking for clues in the video clips Shushan filmed just before his death. He discovers a clip on the phone which exposes an affair between Gerbi and ALMOG (20), the gay and affable CC (command & control) monitor. Omer suspects that the fact that Shushan exposed the affair led Gerbi to hurt him. Furthermore, during Shushan’s funeral, Omer notices that the blue life-belt that Gerbi’s wearing is actually Shushan’s, and the life-belt from which he found Shushan hanging -- is Gerbi’s. Now Omer’s suspicions are reinforced and he realizes that Gerbi is somehow connected to Shushan’s death.
But as he digs deeper, he discovers that things are more complicated than he imagined, and that it's possible that Gardush is also involved in Shushan’s death. He learns that Gardush and Shushan had some very troubling altercations in the past, and that in fact Gerbi is acting on Gardush’s behalf. With every day that goes by, Omer becomes more ostracized and isolated in the ship, but he won’t give up, for with every new detail that he uncovers, he becomes more and more convinced that Shushan did not commit suicide, but was in fact MURDERED in cold blood. He tries to raise his concerns before Borochovitz, explain his suspicions, but Borochovitz defends Gardush and warns Omer not to spread dangerous conspiracy theories which he can’t prove. Meanwhile, Gerbi and Gardush are trying to get their hands on Shushan’s smartphone, to dispose of the volatile footage it holds. Omer starts feeling that his life is in real danger.
He tries to turn to the only people he trusts on the ship for help: GROSS, his only friend from the bow, RON, Shushan’s best friend, and SHAI (23), the Weapons Officer and the only woman on board. He walks them through his murder theory, step by step; Omer suspects that Gardush and Gerbi collaborated to weaken Shushan and get back at him during the last days of his service before his release. During the confrontation between the three soldiers, things got out of hand, and Shushan was fatally injured and, to evade punishment, Gardush and Gerbi faked his suicide. The evidence Omer presents to Ron, Gross and Shai leave them aghast. They decide to lead a takeover of the ship, to turn it back to Haifa harbor and launch and immediate investigation. But as the mutiny of the low-rank soldiers begins, all hell breaks loose. The anger and frustration that the combatants accumulated throughout the years erupts with hellish rage, unleashed and aimed at the officers. Omer realizes that it’s going to be near impossible to put out the fire he just started. Meanwhile, a new piece of evidence surfaces and reveals to Omer and Shai the truth about Shushan’s death: the person who killed Shushan was not Gerbi, nor was it Gardush, as they first suspected, it was none other than “radar” Aviran! The most degraded soldier on board, and the one who was there all along the way. Now Omer and Shai, his new ally, we’ll have to find a way to stop the takeover before it reaches the point of no return, and at the same time try and stop “radar” Aviran, who realizes he has nothing to lose anymore, and is tight-rope walking the fine line between life and death…

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