Drowning Dry
In this elliptically told melodrama that was Lithuania’s submission for the 2025 Academy Awards®, two families must confront lingering resentments when tragedy strikes during a lakeside weekend summer vacation. Winner of Best Director at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival.
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Saturday, May 17, 2025
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- Matinee
Thursday, May 22, 2025
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- On Standby
- Matinee
When tragedy strikes out of nowhere, memories can play uncomfortable tricks on the mind. Director and cinematographer Laurynas Bareiša cleverly plays with this confusion in a tale of the slow disintegration of a close-knit Lithuanian family. Two sisters drive off with their husbands and kids for a relaxing lakehouse weekend, but it doesn’t take long for tiny cracks to appear in the familial peace. Ernesta (Gelminė Glemžaitė) acts coldly to her well-sculpted MMA-fighter husband Lukas (Paulius Markevičius) due to the repeated violence and injuries in his profession. Her sister Juste (Agnė Kaktaitė) has similar marital problems with her husband Tomas (Giedrius Kiela), whose simmering jealousy of Lukas’ intimidating physicality feeds their competitive natures. While the kids enjoy a pleasant dockside outing, a shocking accident occurs, followed by disorienting jumps in the storyline. The stunned family moves on from the weekend, but Bareiša keeps returning to the lake, repeating some scenes nearly verbatim and extending others, slowly revealing vital new information. Maintaining a detached perspective through tense medium shots, minimal camera movement, and sparse dialogue, Bareiša creates a tantalizingly out-of-sequence mystery, keeping the audience guessing about what actually shattered the family that summer day and how its repercussions keep echoing.
—Randy Woods
- Original Language Title: Sesės
- Director: Laurynas Bareiša
- Principal Cast: Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Paulius Markevičius, Giedrius Kiela
- Country: Lithuania, Latvia
- Year: 2024
- Running Time: 88 min.
- Producer: Klementina Remeikaitė
- Screenplay: Laurynas Bareiša
- Cinematographers: Laurynas Bareiša
- Editors: Silvija Vilkaitė
- Website: Official Film Website
- Awards: Locarno Film Festival 2024 (Best Direction, Performance), Official Academy Awards® Submission 2025 (International Feature)
- Filmography: Pilgrims (2021)
- Language: Lithuanian
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- Format: DCP
- US Distributor: Dekanalog
- International Sales: Alpha Violet