LAURYNAS BAREIŠA: DROWNING DRY/SESES (2024)TRAILERWatching and pondering"Engaging," wrote Alissa Simon in
Variety, "yet tantalizingly withholding." As she says, it's nonlinear and also hides central events in the lives of its fighter, the two sisters, their marriages and children, unveiling a tragedy gradually that occurs during a summer holiday. Things only become clear at the film's very end.
It's a fascinating, intriguing style, which makes one feel smart or, if one is lost, stupid as a viewer. Not for everyone. The camera is managed by the director, who favors fixed positions the actors move in and out of, or that sometimes lead to an extreme closeup on the side of a head. The actors seem captured in a variety of natural poses and moments.
At the outset, the muscular Lucas (Paulius Markevicius) wins a mixed martial arts competition and celebrates with his wife, son, and friends backstage. Then he and his wife Ernesta (Gelmine Glemzaite) and his wife's sister Juste (Agne Kaktaite) and her jokey, pot-bellied husband Tomas (Giedrius Kiela) go to a lakeside country home to celebrate his success and winnings. Lots of short scenes follow, out of chronological order, but joined by a sense of togetherness. Only there is tragedy that looms over events, and we never learn altogether exactly all the details, but by the end the main thing becomes clear.
A curious intimacy is achieved by this elliptical method, and the natural playing of the scenes.
While the rough life of Lucas might imply humble origins, it's clear the ample summer house, with its handsome wood walls, has been in the sisters' family for generations, and there is an air of comfort about the group. Yet there is some chilliness in the two marriages. Ernesta is unhappy with the physical beatings Lucas takes and steers clear of him in the bedroom. In another scene Juste ignores Tomas when he offers himself to her standing nude. Dancing and playing together, Ernesta and Juste save all their time for enjoying each other or their respective young son and daughter, who seem at ease and are about the same age.
But things are not at ease when Juste's daughter disappears under the water of the lake. Shifts back and forth never reveal what happens. But there is another scene of the girl being rushed to a hospital choking for air, but dismissed because it's "psychosomatic." And in scenes that move through later moments, Lucas is missing. The choking of the girl apparently is a psychological reaction to almost drowning called "drowning dry." As Jordan Mintzer's
Hollywood Reporter review explains it, subsequent scenes explore "the ripple effects" of a "tragic event" as it hits several of the characters over several days, months, even years, then finally "looping back" to "what started things off in the first place."
In effect we are given a tool box for emotional analysis, and thus made aware how a moment of trauma - not the almost-drowning, but the much worse accident that came afterward - spirals out in its emotional effect on the people even when they were not actually there at the moment when it occurred.
The Lithouanian title of the film,
Seses, means "Sisters."
Drowning Dry, 88 mins., debuted at Locarno where it won the best director and best ensemble performance awards. Later it was chosen as Lithuania's Academy Awards entry. Originally reviewed by me as part of New Directors/New Films when it was shown Apr. 3 at MoMA and Apr. 6 at the Walter Reade Theater of Lincoln Center. A US theatrical release date has been announced: July 18, 2025. NYC at IFC Center, followed by showings in Los Angeles, Seattle and other cities. At IFC Friday, July 18-Saturday, July 18 at 7:20 p.m.: Q&As with director Laurynas Bareiša after the show, moderated by Indiewire’s Ryan Lattanzio (Fri) and filmmaker Sierra Pettengil (Sat). Continuing at IFC through July 31.
Metacritic rating: 7̶7̶%̶ now 80%.
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