''The Water'' ( es, El agua, links=no) is a 2022 internationally co-produced

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film with magic realism elements directed by in her directorial debut feature which stars Luna Pamies,

Bárbara Lennie Bárbara Lennie Holguín (born 20 April 1984) is a Spanish actress, hailed as an indie cinema star. She won the Goya Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 2014 neo-noir drama ''Magical Girl'', also scooping nominations for ''Obaba'' ...

and Nieve de Medina. It is a joint Swiss-Spanish-French production.

Plot

Set in southeastern Spain, with the backdrop of a local superstition concerning women being predestined to drown in river floods, the plot follows Ana, who lives with her mother and her grandmother, while the storm is coming.

Cast

Production

The screenplay was penned by Elena López Riera alongside . A Swiss-Spanish-French co-production, the film was produced by Alina Film, Suica Films and Les Films du Worso with support from Institut Valencià de Cultura, ICAA, Creative Europe's MEDIA, and participation of

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...

and . Shooting took place in Orihuela and other locations across the

province of Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. It is the second most populated Valencian province. Likewise, the second and third biggest cities in the Valencian Community (Alica ...

from April to May 2021. Giuseppe Truppi took over the cinematography whereas Raphaël Lefèvre did so with the film editing.

Release

The film had its world premiere on 20 May 2022 at the

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festiv ...

parallel section of the

75th Cannes Film Festival The 75th annual Cannes Film Festival is an upcoming film festival scheduled to take place from 17 to 28 May 2022. The festival will see a tribute to actor Tom Cruise, whose film '' Top Gun: Maverick'' is due to premiere at the festival. The off ...

. It was set to have its North-American premiere at the

2022 Toronto International Film Festival The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, the 47th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, is scheduled to be held from September 8 to 18, 2022. Festival organizers have indicated that the 2022 festival will be staged primar ...

as part of the 'Contemporary World Cinema' film slate.

Filmin Comunidad Filmin S.L., doing business as Filmin, is a Spanish subscription video on demand streaming service, primarily dedicated to streaming independent films, as well as a production company and film distributor. The company headquarters is loc ...

and Elastica scooped the distribution rights for Spain, where the film was scheduled to be theatrically released on 28 October 2022. It eventually opened in Spanish theatres on 4 November 2022.

Reception

On the American

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''The Water'' has a 100% approval rating based on 15 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 7.7/10. Jonathan Holland of '' ScreenDaily'' deemed the film to be a "daring, multi-layered debut feature", also writing that " 'The Water'' isa film which always feels carefully poised on the edge of the surreal, where dark things always seem to be pressing in". Manu Yáñez of '' Fotogramas'' rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, extolling the "audacity" of Elena López Riera at handling and intermingling the elements of the film. Elsa Fernández-Santos of ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'' deemed the "suggestive" debut feature to be "a film where the arcane becomes visible in a subtle and interior way".

Top ten lists

The film appeared on a number of critics' top ten lists of the best Spanish films of 2022:

Accolades

, - , rowspan = "8" align = "center" , 2022 , , 27th

Toulouse Spanish Film Festival The Toulouse Spanish Film Festival (french: Festival du Film Espagnol de Toulouse, links=no; es, Festival de Cine Español de Toulouse, links=no), also known as Cinespaña, is an annual film festival held in Toulouse, France, which specialises i ...

, , colspan = "2" , Golden Violet , , , , align = "center" , , - , rowspan = "6" , 5th Berlanga Awards , , colspan = "2" , Best Film , , , , rowspan = "6" , , - , Best Director , , Elena López Riera , , , - , Best Screenplay , , Elena López Riera , , , - , Best Actress , , Luna Pamies , , , - , Best Supporting Actress , , Lidia María Cánovas , , , - , Best Supporting Actor , , Pascual Valero , , , - , 16th Lisbon & Sintra Film Festival , , colspan = "2" , Special Jury Prize (New Film) , , , , , - , rowspan = "6" align = "center" , 2023 ,

10th Feroz Awards The 10th ceremony of the Premios Feroz, presented by the Asociación de Informadores Cinematográficos de España, will talke place at the Auditorio de Zaragoza in Zaragoza, Spain, on 28 January 2023, to recognize the best in Spanish cinema and te ...

, , colspan = "2" , Arrebato Award (Fiction) , , , , align = "center" , , - , rowspan = "2" , 78th CEC Medals , , Best New Director , , Elena López Riera , , , , rowspan = "2" , , - , Best Supporting Actress , , Bárbara Lennie , , , - , rowspan = "2" ,

37th Goya Awards The 37th Goya Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, is scheduled to take place at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre in Seville, Andalusia on 11 February 2023. Background On 31 May 202 ...

Best New Director ''Best New Director'' was an award given by the New York Film Critics Circle from its first inception in 1989 until discontinuing in 1996. There was no award in 1993. 1980s 1989 *Kenneth Branagh – ''Henry V (1989 film), Henry V'' **Runners-up: St ...

, , Elena López Riera , , rowspan = "2" align = "center" , , - , Best New Actress , , Luna Pamies , ,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Water (2022 film), The 2022 films 2022 drama films Swiss drama films Spanish drama films French drama films Films shot in the province of Alicante Films set in Spain 2020s Spanish-language films 2022 directorial debut films 2020s Spanish films Magic realism films 2020s French films