Drowning Dry

Drowning Dry holds you at arm’s length, but I found it more moving—and unsettling—because of that.

The cast is excellent, and the story structure is so unique that it is refreshing. Bareisa has taken the family drama formula and reworked it entirely into something heartfelt, heartbreaking, and utterly absorbing.

With a Michael Haneke-esque impassive glaze and a Ruben Östlund-level satire of manners and emotional stuntedness in adults, the film acquires a quiet power as it plays out all possible permutations of a swimming accident that may or may not have ruined the lives of at least two families.

Audiences open to a different sort of world cinema that repays careful attention should find it a stimulating and imaginative work.

Part of the appeal of Lithuanian director Laurynas Bareisa’s subtly powerful second feature, Drowning Dry (Seses), is that you never know if what you’re watching is taking place in the present, past or future.

Drowning Dry offers something akin to a cinematic concussion as it begins warping the experience of time.