This is a film about memories: happy ones, fun flashbacks, harrowing moments of introspection. Ernesta (Gelminė Glemžaitė) is a wife who cries watching her husband in a boxing ring; her sister Juste (Agnė Kaktaitė) is involved with a man who risks ruining their livelihood by brawling with his brother-in-law; and the two counter their spouses egos through dance routines done to British pop duo Lighthouse Family. Drowning Dry cuts from the sunny countryside, where the parents take their children swimming, back to the snow-covered cities where the two women look older, one having separated from her partner, the other having met a man who carries some of her late husband’s organs.
It’s fitting that the film’s original Lithuanian title, Seses, roughly translates to “Sisters”, because the focus is on the adult siblings. When they aren’t dancing, they practice yoga together, or drink wine, reminiscing about their childhood. As it happens, Drowning Dry doesn’t follow a chronological narrative: shots of the females crying follow scenes where their families are enjoying a holiday at their parents house. Ernesta and Juste doubt the men’s abilities to entertain children, which builds up to a harrowing scene where Juste’s daughter, Urte, falls headfirst into the lake. She is rescued, but inhales a large quantity of water, affecting her lungs in the process. This, naturally, is what led to the English title, and one of the side affects of “dry drowning” is irregular repetition when it comes to recalling traumatic events.
Director Laurynas Bareiša opts to show the lake scene twice, and although the differences are minimal, the reprise highlights many of the feature’s emotional undertones. The men throw themselves across the water, while the women use their focus to locate Urte. This could be described as a dissertation on toxic masculinity, since the spouses spend their times flexing muscles or boasting about their vehicles. Tomas (Giedrius Kiela), in particular, often mocks boxer Lukas (Paulius Markevičius), even baiting him into a scrap, much to Juste’s embarrassment.
Where the males are unreliable, the siblings can lean on one another. Ernesta turns to Juste after bumping into a person who holds some of Lukas’s body parts; the two women parrot the dialogue in a series of helium-inflected voices. Love exists between these two, an affection they can return to whenever the rest of the world lets the pair down. Bareiša wisely contrasts the denser moments with belly-laughs, particularly in the early parts of the film. Kaktaite is a physical performer par excellence, and stars in a collection of giddily-executed sight gags. She certainly knows how to sell a drunk performance, returning from a night at a bar to chastise her daughter for “wearing a jumper over her dress”.
This summer home, situated beside a jaw-droppingly beautiful lake, becomes an emblem of tragedy for the family. Crockery litters the floor. In many ways, the broken dish represents the tear this family has endured and, like the Jarrett clan in Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980), this group has to learn how to overcome grief in the hope of finding an essence of solace. As an exploration of despair, Drowning Dry works because the happier segments featuring the extended group as a unit on vacation contrasts the dourer moments; the two adult women have to find inner strength for the sake of their children.
Not all is doom and gloom. There is also happiness to be gleamed even in the darkest moments. Juste locates some photos of the duo as children, only for Ernesta to tease her about a “naked” portrait. The pair chuckle: no death can ruin such a strong bond.
Drowning Dry premiered in the Official Competition of the 77th Locarno Film Festival, when this piece was originally written. Also showing in the Baltic Competition of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, at IndieLisboa, and Tiff Romania.
