Director’s Statement – Cliff Schwarz

Our bodies are made mostly of water. When we die, that water does not disappear — it returns to the earth, the rivers, the sea. It carries us back into the cycle of life, as if memory itself could ripple through every drop. In the Shadow of Waves begins with this mystery: what if the water remembers us?

This film is, at its heart, about loss and forgiveness. It follows a girl searching for meaning after the loss of her brother, a mother burdened by secrets, and a troubled scientist convinced that the emotional power of water can be used to create miracles. Their journeys collide in unexpected ways, reflecting how loss binds people together and how healing often arrives from the most unlikely places.

I wanted to make a film that explores the fragile line between science and faith, mystery and memory. We live in a world where we search endlessly for explanations, yet sometimes the most profound truths live in what we cannot fully explain. Water — timeless, elemental, and essential — became the natural vessel for this story.

In the Shadow of Waves is not a film about spectacle or violence, but about the quiet power of emotions carried beneath the surface. It is about the voices we hear in our loss, the forgiveness we long for, and the miracles we sometimes find in the most ordinary elements of life.