Lithuania’s submission to the 97th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film is a slow burn suspenseful film about a family’s life being turned upside down after an accident results in the death of one of its members. “Drowning Dry” (2024) is what “Final Destination” would be if it was a meditative drama without the jump scare gimmicks or cheap thrills. Director and writer Laurynas Bareisa is not suffering from a sophomore slump. The original title is “Seses,” which translates to sisters and probably should have been kept since the English title includes a huge spoiler.
Bareisa shows and rarely tells; however, when there is dialogue, pay attention because no fact is casually dropped, and the prose dumps are subtle. He begins with a bang, the end of a martial arts tournament. The framing and camera movement conveys individual personalities and interpersonal dynamics. Ernesta (Gelmine Glemzaite) is a naturally dynamic person who admires her husband, Lukas (Paulius Markevicius), but is also aware that he seems oblivious to the fragile nature of life. Bareisa introduces her as a fraction of a person reflected in a mirror tending to her husband’s cut then moving out of that object’s frame to sit in front of the camera looking at her son, Kristafus (Herkus Sarapas), playing video games. She is the only sane person in the room who knows that it does not matter how much of a badass her husband is, it can go wrong.
When her sister, Juste (Agne Kaktaite), her brother-in-law, Tomas (Giedrius Kiela), and her niece, Urte (Olivija Eva Villiune), join them, she finally lets her guard down. Outside, an object finally grabs Kristafus attention, but it takes a long time before Bareisa shows the audience what he is looking at. Bareisa is deft at building up tension, but the deliberate pacing could frustrate people because there are so many moments when a movie goer can exclaim, “Oh, I know what is going to happen,” then the moment passes with some nerves frayed or near misses, but if you come to a movie with this title, you are expecting death and may be frustrated when Bareisa keeps refusing to give you what you want in the way that you are anticipating. There are no clear answers even after the identity of the family member who died that weekend is revealed, but “Drowning Dry” is not about what happened, but how it seems retroactively expected because of what is revealed about the characters.
Be prepared for the narrative to abruptly stop being linear and jump around the timeline. To figure out when it is, look at two details: the length of Juste’s hair and the season. These time jumps work because if it was told in a straight fashion, viewers would be more preoccupied and astonished at how dumb some characters are than trying to learn more about them and how they are handling the fallout of that weekend at the lake. Bareisa uses the story to illustrate gender. Though Lukas is the fighter, he is laid back and less competitive outside of the ring whereas Tomas just waves multiple flags of insecurity. They do share a certain trait in common. Once they arrive at the lake house, they sit back and let their wives settle in then wait until they are done to try and get with them. There is the expectation of being served. Urte is not fully trained to adhere to gender norms so when she plays with her cousin, she is just as destructive as he is. Destruction is associated with the carelessness of a child, not adult behavior. During one scene, Urte’s face is obscured, and a conversation reveals she is wearing a dress over her clothes. The guys smoke cigars and play fight while the women dance. Money concerns are where Tomas stands alone. All the adults except for him understand that buying a house is challenging. It is only later that his stubbornness over empathy makes sense. It is not just about finally beating Lukas at some aspect of life, but a desire to retain a privilege which does not belong to him. Side note: if toxic masculinity came with more grilled steak for breakfast and other meals, maybe it would be more palatable.
The camera is often still then almost imperceptibly moves forward as if interested in the situation: when they first arrive at the cabin, at the lake side, etc. After one of the earliest mishaps, Bareisa uses Kristafus as the baseline barometer to gauge the emotional temperature of the house’s inhabitants and how it changes Kristafus forever. He gets a dose of what the women have: a sense of mortality. By cleaning up and staring into space, he exhibits this change in temperament. In contrast, instead of dancing, the women play fight. The usually loquacious Tomas is struck silent. Everyone is initially in their separate corners, but Lukas and Ernesta’s reaction begins to thaw out everyone’s shock. They are accustomed to life threatening events as a part of daily life. The camera begins to focus on the women more as danger approaches and after it subsides.
Bareisa stumbles a bit when he strays from these dynamics and begins to reflect on the event in a Rashomon-esque style exposing the inherent flaws of witness testimony. It shifts focus onto the logistics of what happened. A song changes depending on the retelling but considering that there is not a single or clear point of view, until the denouement, the message is unclear how that one differing detail should color the rest of “Drowning Dry.” Memory affects the recovery from the incident, and without spoiling anything, the clues regarding which character will fall to pieces is hinted during a girls’ night out at a foster home.
“Drowning Dry” also gets that mourning does not mean expressive wailing and rending of clothes. The sisters joke about how an organ transplant recipient and his family solemnize the occasion. Life goes on, and people move on. When two people who are now at odds encounter each other, one seeks connection, and the other just walks around them as if they were a tourist standing in the center of the sidewalk. It is bureaucracy and tying up loose ends that spark anxiousness.
There is an ambulance theme, but the results are mixed. It ratchets up the tension—when are they, who is in it, but it also becomes a counterpoint for men who are in caring professions as an antidote; however, it had the opposite intended effect. Are there red flags here too? Bareisa did not intend it because the emergency medical technician is shown at ease and conversing with women as equals. Even though there is a joke about working for a date while participating in a noble activity, there are communal narcissist who present a charitable face to the world, but neglect and abuse their loved ones. Sorry, Bareisa, the world is a dumpster fire and a beautiful place.
“Drowning Dry” is the kind of movie that is easier to appreciate on a big screen especially since it demands your complete attention to truly appreciate how well-crafted it is: from the ensemble’s convincing acting as a family to Bareisa’s minimalist, elemental filmmaking. Lithuania has a contender!
