This year’s films focus on water or its lack thereof. Adventures, thrillers, horror films, political dramas, animation, comedies, and documentaries capture in a fascinating way our essential relation with the water world.
The Odyssey
Director: Jérôme Salle
France - Belgium, 2016, 122΄
Summer, 1946. The Cousteau family – Jacques, his wife Simone, and their two children Philippe and Jean-Michel – live in their beautiful house by the Mediterranean Sea. By day, they dive; by night, they watch the stars. This place is heaven on earth. But Jacques is never pleased. He lives and breathes adventure, and has true faith in the virtues of progress. With his invention, the aqualung, his recently acquired vessel “Calypso,” and a crew of free-spirited adventurers. He is ready to cross the world’s oceans. Ten years later, back from the boarding school where he was sent with his brother, Philippe finds his father greatly altered: He is already an international celebrity with megalomaniac dreams of grafting gills to humans and creating underwater cities. Jacques cannot see it yet, but Philippe understands that progress and pollution have begun to lay waste to the submarine world. Despite their mutual love and admiration, violent conflict between these two passionate men is inevitable. But on their greatest adventure together aboard the Calypso, in Antarctica, they will find each other – before tragedy strikes. Starring Lambert Wilson, Pierre Niney, Audrey Tautou.
Jaws
Director: Steven Spielberg
USA, 124΄, 1975
The absolute movie-event that skyrocketed the career of Steven Spielberg – becoming the biggest box-office hit in the history of cinema at the time of its release, proving once and for all that blockbusters and summertime are not irreconcilable – in a unique midnight screening at the open-air cinema “Apollon” in Edipsos. A bloodthirsty shark is raising havoc in a sea resort community in the heart of the tourist season. The local sheriff, a marine biologist, and a veteran shark hunter take on hunting down the beast. A water western of impeccable tension and climax (thanks to the legendary music theme by John Williams and the breathtaking underwater POV of the shark), serves as a symbol and an allegory. Jaws fathoms the guilt and the unhealed historical traumas of an entire country, while challenging us to stare back at the most vicious monster: the one hidden inside of us, triggering our most freezing fear responses.
The Host
Director: Bong Joon-ho
South Korea, 2006, 119΄
As it has for ages past, the Han River continues to pierce the very center of the capital city Seoul. But one day in the year 2000... Through an “unfortunate incident,” a creature of obscure nature is conceived in the waters. As the creature slowly starts to grow in the depths of the river, people fail to sense the signs of an impending disaster in their personal lives. Then one day in 2005, in front of countless citizens taking a stroll and enjoying the weekend on the banks of the Han River, the creature reveals itself in a shocking display of horror. One of the first gems of Bong Joon-ho, long before conquering Hollywood with his Oscar-winning Parasite.
Burning Days
Director: Emin Alper
Turkey - France - Germany - The Netherlands - Greece - Croatia, 2022, 130΄
In this highly stylized film blending Western and neo-noir iconography with poignant social critique, Emre, a young and dedicated prosecutor, is newly appointed to a small town hit by a water crisis and political scandals. After an initial welcome, he experiences an increasing number of tense interactions and is reluctantly dragged into local politics. When Emre forms a bond with the owner of the local newspaper pressure escalates under heated rumors. Explosive from its very first scene, when a vast hole in the ground drives us into a universe of violence and blood, and fixating till the end credits, this intense allegory about homosociality and power invents a new language to decry the makings of a society which is dominated by men, and to discuss their inner conflict.
The Weight of Water
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
USA - Canada - France, 2000, 114΄
Approaching the melodrama with the same deconstructive impulse Bigelow usually applies to action genres, The Weight of Water interweaves two parallel stories from a century apart – a present-day story of sexual tension, jealousy, and bitterness envenoming two couples and a period tale of a double murder driven by the same emotions. Bigelow characteristically heightens ambivalences inherent in the genre at hand, mounting the psychosexual tension between affection and rivalry, identification and competition traditional to melodrama, only in this case among women rather than men. One of Bigelow’s most intricate and ambitious films, The Weight of Water adds a more metaphysical dimension to the vein of dark fatalism that runs throughout her work, using water to evoke a constant sense of unsettling flux.
Finding Dory
Directors: Andrew Stanton, Angus MacLane
USA, 2016, 97΄
From the Academy Award-winning creators of Disney•Pixar’s Finding Nemo (Best Animated Feature, 2003) comes an epic undersea adventure filled with imagination, humor, and heart. When Dory, the forgetful blue tang, suddenly remembers she has a family who may be looking for her, she, Marlin, and Nemo take off on a life-changing quest to find them… This happens with some help from Hank, a cantankerous octopus; Bailey, a beluga whale who’s convinced his biological sonar skills are on the fritz; and Destiny, a nearsighted whale shark! Dive into the movie overflowing with unforgettable characters, dazzling animation, and gallons of fun!
Above Water
Director: Aïssa Maïga
Niger - France - Belgium, 2021, 89΄
Above Water immerses us in the life of a tiny village in Niger, one of the sub-Saharan countries hardest hit by global warming. Set against a backdrop of spellbinding desert landscapes and a vibrant musical score, the documentary paints a visceral portrait of survival in that drought-ridden expanse of dry sand. Day after day, women and children walk miles under the beating sun to fetch water from a distant well. Children are often unable to go to school. Mothers are forced to leave the country for months to earn enough money to feed their families. So young people, like our poignant 14-year-old protagonist, Houlaye, must tend to the little ones. Yet, deep under their feet lies a vast groundwater lake that has the potential to transform their lives dramatically. If only they could convince the powers that be to drill for that precious commodity…
Twice Colonized
Director: Lin Alluna
Denmark - Greenland - Canada, 2023, 92΄
Renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter has led a lifelong fight for the rights of her people. When her son suddenly dies, Aaju embarks on a journey to reclaim her language and culture after a lifetime of whitewashing and forced assimilation. But is it possible to change the world and mend your own wounds at the same time?
Winona
Director: The Boy (Alexandros Voulgaris)
Greece, 2019, 88΄
It appears as if it is an ordinary outing to a beautiful beach: Four women – none of which is Winona – enjoy the warmth of the sun and the coolness of the sea. What secret hides behind their games? The film was shot on Kodak 16mm, on a beach on the island of Andros, in May 2018. Best Editing Award and Best Original Music Score Award at the 2020 Iris Awards of the Hellenic Film Academy.
Underwonder (4th episode)
Director: Kostas Karydas - Production: COSMOTE TV
Greece, 2024, 49΄
A fascinating journey begins as “Underwonder” explores the unapproachable submarine caves of Greece. In Crete’s Elephants’ Cave, a team of experienced cave divers unearths the bones of a worldwidely unique species of elephant, bringing to light images and stories hidden below the sea surface. A 3D representation takes the audience back in time, offering them a past view of the island, boosting with wildlife. An unexpected underwater adventure, directed by Kostas Karydas and produced by COSMOTE TV. The mission is accomplished and the team returns to the Lake of Vouliagmeni where a new and unforeseen discovery awaits them!
Heatwave
Director: Fokion Xenos
United Kingdom - Greece, 2019, 7΄
Amid a heatwave of insanity, two children find a way to cool everyone down! The movie intertwines traditional animation techniques and digital special effects, has been bestowed with a dozen distinctions in festivals all over the world, made it to the shortlist for the BAFTA Awards, and won, among many others, the Best Animation Short Film Award at the 2019 Iris Awards of the Hellenic Film Academy.
Nothing Holier than a Dolphin
Director: Isabella Margara
Greece, 2022, 17΄
The two fishermen find a dolphin accidentally caught in their nets. The dolphin, in turn, finds a fisherman drowning in the water and tries to save him. In this small Mediterranean village, an ancient myth unexpectedly comes to life. The film won an Audience Award at the 2023 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival’s International Competition section.
On Xerxes’ Throne
Director: Evi Kalogiropoulou
Greece, 2022, 16΄
A dystopian workplace at the Perama shipyards. A longstanding ban on physical contact has turned human interactions into otherworldly simulations. The suppression of touch among the workers has alienated their communication, transforming the boatyard into a charged landscape of alienation and repressed sensuality beyond stereotypical heteronormative desires. The film received the Canal+ Award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
Postcards from the End of the World
Director: Konstantinos Antonopoulos
Greece, 2019, 23΄
Trapped in their dysfunctional family vacation, Dimitra, Dimitris and their two daughters will have to find a way out of a secluded island in the Mediterranean, when confronted with the unexpected end of the world. Best Short Film Award at the 2020 Iris Awards of the Hellenic Film Academy.
Is there life after the fire?
Greece, 2022, 12΄
In August 2021, more than 500,000 acres of forest were burnt by the wildfires. In the summer of 2022, PPC, appointed as the contractor of the reconstruction plan and having assumed the planning and the carrying out of flood-control and anticorrosive works in the region of Limni, embarked on a research and report tour in the area. Permanent residents and practitioners recount the dramatic 2021 events as they experienced them and discuss what tomorrow will bring for their homeland.
