FAU Film Treatments - Though Different Eyes and Pedals Pt 1 directed by Andre Ornelas

August 14th, 2025

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Preface:

This treatment is a final for a Holocaust in Film course I took during my final semester at FAU. Interestingly, this course was taken fully online! The course itself was about how the Holocaust was portrayed in film. This also included many different perspectives (including taboo perspectives from older German ideologies) and how filmmaking was handled at the time. The goal of this assignment was to create a fictional story based on real accounts.

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Through Different Eyes and Pedals Pt 1

Directed by Andre Ornelas

Proposed Run Time: 210 Minutes

Target Audience: PG-13

Genre: Anthology - Live action (Drama), Animation (Mystery)

Tagline: “ A rose propagates; so do its thorns and petals.”

Production Scheduled: June 28th, 2026

Notice:

This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this treatment are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Subject:

Through Different Eyes and Pedals Pt 1 is an introduction anthology in the Romanoff’s Cards trilogy. The Romanoff family meets a musician named Yuri, who plays the fiddle in honor of his family legacy, as many of them were lost in the holocaust. The Romanoffs lend an ear to his stories as he describes what it was like for his family being Jewish in 1942 Germany.

Anna Romanoff: The youngest of the Romanoff children (Aged 7), a little shy, but curious about the world around her. She demonstrates the innocence of a child who learns about alienation through the story of The Old Wolf and Young Rat.

Alexander Romanoff: The oldest of the two Romanoff children (Aged 18), He cares for his sister Anna when his parents are at work. She understands the role of protectors of the innocent through the tale of The Crew of Cairo and the Gas Men.

Aviana Romanoff: The mother of the Romanoff children, she is a photographer who values memories of history. Always with a film camera at hand and a notebook by her side, nothing goes unnoticed by her eyes.

Alexis Romanoff: The patriarch of the Romanoff family line, he is a known musician who plays for anything he sees fit. Cherishing his children over everything.

Yuri Gershwin: A fellow musician and storyteller who plays with Alexis at the orchestra, tells the story of his Jewish relatives who survived the events of the Holocaust. Similar to Władysław Szpilman’s family, his bloodline survived through the love of music and its ability to reach others.

Old Wolf: Old Wolf represents an older German citizen living in Berlin after the First World War. He likes his space to be clean and without mess. Bothered by Young Rat, Old Wolf alienates Young Rat till he leaves for good.

Young Rat: A representation of a young Jewish man looking to live in Berlin, he is a musician who enjoys playing the fiddle. He has problems with Old Wolf and represents Jews who flee trouble rather than confront it.

Logline:

“When the orchestra quiets down and the flowers are thrown to the stage, who do they truly reach?”

Synopsis

Chapter 1 - The Romanoff Family and The Orchestra (Early 2000s)

The Romanoff family is seen driving to an orchestra where Alexis was offered a position to play the trumpet. As they ride, Alexis communicates with his children to observe the orchestra with an open mind and heart, to try to make friends, and the children agree. The children bring their playthings, consisting of a sketchbook and a backpack with a few books inside.

At the orchestra, the children notice an interesting man playing the fiddle in the corner of the eating area and begin to talk to him. Aviana takes a photo of him playing. As he stops playing, he introduces himself as Yuri and shakes hands with Alexis, also greeting the children before the two enter the orchestra for their performance. The performance goes off with a hitch, and Anna notices Yuri shedding a tear in his playing as the set finishes for dinner. Aviana asks the children if they liked the performance and asks them to find their father to join her for photos with the other orchestra members. The children are left in the center, free to roam and search for their father. In her curiosity about why Yuri was teary-eyed, Anna searches for him as well, leaving Alexander behind. In her haste, Anna finds Yuri as he looks at a photo of his grandfather. She asks him why he was crying a little during the performance, and he explains to her that he was thinking about the man in the photo. She gets confused and asks if he was on vacation. He chuckles and looks at the book on top of her unzipped bag. Anna notices this and tells him that it’s her favorite book, one her father gave her. Realizing what she needed to do, she asked Yuri to help her find her father. The two walk as Yuri offers to tell her a story. She agrees, and the two walk through the center in search of her father.

Chapter 2 - The Old Wolf and Young Rat (based on 1939)

A young rat found himself a nice hole in the ground to settle for his life as a musician. He had a tiny fiddle and played for anyone who had an ear to listen to him. He was well-admired by the other rodents and even respected. He did have one person who didn’t like him, the Old Wolf who lived in the house next to Young Rat’s hole. Every so often, he would come and sweep dirt into his home, interrupt his practicing, or even chase him out of the hole for fun. After a while, the Old Wolf began to lie about the Young Rat, how he carried sickness and plagues. Others began to resent Young Rat. Tired of being so, the Young Rat found the Old Wolf sleeping in a giant bed and woke him up. The Old Wolf, tired and not in the mood to kill the Young Rat, asked him what he wanted that was so important to wake him. The Young Rat asks the Old Wolf, “Why do you pour dust into my home? Why do you interrupt my fiddle? Why do you chase me when I come home?” The Old Wolf picked up the Young Rat, but rather than eat him, he threw him near the door. “I need not answer to the likes of you.”

The Young Rat, realizing that the violence would not stop, began to pack his things as the rain started. He creates a boat with an old rose petal and rides a stream to the gutter, leaving his home forever.

Chapter 3 - The Reunion (Early 2000s)

Returning to Anna and Yuri, they find Alexander a little panicked but relieved that they were together. Yuri greets her as Alexander punches Anna on the shoulder, telling her she was worried. Yuri burst out laughing, and Alexander looked at him, embarrassed. Yuri tells him that his brother was the same way the two acted with each other. Alexander thanks him for helping her sister, and the three continue their search for Alexis. As they walked, Anna told him a little about the story. Alexander is intrigued and asks for a story about protecting his younger sister from venturing out in the future as a joke. Yuri thinks a little and offers another story, this time looking at a poster for a film rerun of James Atlanta and the Iliad.

Chapter 4 - The Crew of Cairo

There was a boy named Peter, an archaeologist, who ventured to Cairo for the Rose of Esther. The Rose of Esther was an artifact thought to give its holder the voice of a nation, giving command to the earth itself. As Peter was digging in a cave with others in his group, a cave-in happened, and he struggled to save the life of another member. Scared by his death, he vows to put others first. The crew worked days and nights and found the room holding the Rose. Holding it as the crew leaves the caves, gunshots can be heard as three bodies fall near Peter and two other members of the expedition. He calms them down by promising their safety and signs them to hide. A silhouette of a man with a gas mask and revolver reaches his hand to the bottom of the cave, where Peter was hiding with the other two, and asks for the Rose. A scream is heard at the top as The Gas Man threatens an innocent girl who was fetching water near the cave. Peter, motivated by the death of the member from the first day, comes out with the rose stuck in his chest of drawers. The Gas Man tells Peter he lied and shoots the girl in the head. Peter falls to his knees and grabs gravel, lunging after The Gas Man. The Gas Man loses his revolver in the scuffle, but Peter is shot in the back by one of The Gas Man’s associates. The two who were hiding in the cave managed to escape thanks to Peter and reached safety with the Cairo police. They all return to the cave a few hours later to see that nothing is there. And the story ends with a small rose symbol etched on the wall of the cave in blood. The girl’s body was retrieved, and Peter was nowhere to be found.

Chapter 5 - The Retrieval

Alexander calmly looks at Yuri and asks if the story suggests that Anna’s older brother would need to be ready to do anything for her. Yuri snaps and tells him Bingo. Alexander stays silent for a little bit and looks at his sketchbook. He writes down a note and tells Yuri it has been noted. They find Aviana, and she looks at Anna on his shoulders. The crew talks a little with Alexis, who's coming from the other side of the room. The four find the rest of the orchestra members and begin their photoshoot as Aviana positions everyone. Aviana announces the last photo with everyone holding their cases as a silly photo, with Yuri having three photos in his case. One small photo flies near Anna’s book, which has been open for a while. Someone closes the book without looking, and Anna begins to leave for home. It was a little boy and his father, Yuri, now a little panicked, realizing he couldn't find all the photos, began to ask around if anyone had seen the photo. The Rominoff family is shown to be leaving the orchestra, and the scene ends there.

Film Analysis:

The film is to demonstrate different aspects of the holocaust while presenting a story made for the present day. As communicated with films such as *Pirates of the Caribbean, I want Part 1 to communicate Alienation and Protection realistically, while Part 2 communicates with Hope and Reunion.

The Story of the Old Wolf and Young Rat is an interpretation of what Jewish families had to deal with as they were shunned in Germany. Examples taken from were titles such as The Pianist and We Were the Lucky Ones, both based on the true accounts of the Szpilman family and the Kurcs family. The Crew of Cairo took inspiration from Indiana Jones and their portrayal of the Nazi Regime’s interest in the Occult, which began speculation in the early 1940s.

The ending in Pt. 1 would pay homage to the phrase “and now I have nothing,” a common theme to Jewish suffering as they were shipped to the Ghettos during 1939. Pt. 2 would have three more stories about freedom from suffrage as well as accounting those responsible for it, but also forgiveness towards people of a nation of evil, condoning the actions of the nation, but recovering its people.

*The tie-in to Pirates of the Caribbean is that Part One communicates the love of Davy Jones and Calypso, while Part Two communicates the grief and solace felt by Davy Jones.