Seses

Dry drowning is a condition in which someone who has almost drowned will re-experience the same symptoms—difficulty breathing, chest pain, faintness—even though they’re out of the water. Such an incident is not only the pivotal event in Laurynas Bareiša’s second feature, about two sisters who go on a lakeside holiday with their respective husbands and children, but also a ready-made metaphor for the lingering effects of trauma and our capacity for moving on. Observing the action at a remove and telling the story by collapsing past and present, Bareiša finds a unique cinematic language to explore how memory and differing perspectives impact each of the characters’ processing of what happened that day. Which mid-90s pop superhit were they listening to when they decided to go swimming, was it the one by Donna Lewis or the Lighthouse Family? It’s a trivial detail, but these are the kind of minute distinctions whose import can balloon over time and eventually make all the difference. Crafted with a modest, yet impactful touch, SESES’ nuanced portrait of interpersonal relations is at once a damning account of traditional gender dynamics and a stirring celebration of individual fortitude. (Giovanni Marchini Camia)
 

Laurynas Bareiša: DEMBAVA (2014, K), THE CAMEL (2016, K), BY THE POOL (2017, K), CAUCASUS (2018, K), DUMMY (2020, K), PILGRIMS (2021)