Publish date: 2024-08-22

Three years after winning the Orizzonti Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival with “Pilgrims,” Lithuanian filmmaker Laurynas Bareiša brings his sophomore feature “Drowning Dry” to the main competition at the Locarno Film Festival, taking place over August 7-17. Dissecting a tragedy that radically changes the lives of two intertwined families, the film is produced by Klementina Remeikaite’s Afterschool and co-produced by Matiss Kaza’s Trickster Pictures.

The film’s trailer has been shared in exclusivity with Variety in the build-up to the Festival. 

“Something similar to what happens in the film happened to me and I kept remembering it in this incomplete way,” Bareiša told Variety of the film’s non-linear structure. “I had no grasp on the exact memory, and I wanted to explore how these moments happen so very fast but also get stuck in your mind, changing through time. When you see something for the first time, there’s an impact. Then, if you repeat it, it changes. There’s a sense of dread in this inevitability, in the thought that it doesn’t matter how many times you repeat it, the outcome is still the same.”

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“There is this idea that films have a beginning and an ending. It’s a one-time watch and that’s it,” the director continued. “I wanted to make a film that could be watched multiple times in different ways. Film and TV these days have become this viewing experience to be had while cooking, talking, or doing something else. It becomes a parallel experience. I think film needs to be watched fully, you need to be involved in the film, there’s no other way of experiencing it.”

The film, which revolves around the drowning of a young child and its grievous aftermath, proved tricky to cast. “I’ve read literature that mentioned that a six-year-old child is too young to understand that they have to act, so they would just think they would have to be dead, which is a very scary thing,” said Bareiša. “We had a girl during the casting process who refused to drown, so we decided to cast older children, and children who are trained in swimming and diving, so they are comfortable with water.”

Bareiša, also a cinematographer for films including Marija Kavtaradze’s Sundance breakout “Slow,” decided to handle the photography for “Drowning Dry” after opting out of it for his feature debut. “I wanted the chance to be intuitive. Because this film came from a personal experience, I didn’t want to explain myself a lot and go back and forwards with communication. I wanted a feel for the camera, to go into the set and be able to maybe find something hidden within the scene.”

Not only is Bareiša the film’s director, writer and cinematographer, but the film is also produced under his production company, Afterschool, founded alongside Klementina Remeikaite. “We started our production company to have independence and to make the films we wanted to make, but also to be able to bring in other directors and work with them on their projects. I think it is important for us as filmmakers to have a say in the discussion when it comes to how the film gets made, risk-taking, and distribution.”

“We cannot be naïve,” the director continued when asked how vital it is for European filmmakers to step into independent production. “Artistic work is challenging, and the early stages are uncomfortable, unknowable and very risky. So if you’re unaware of that risk, you come into this confrontation with reality. You have to make compromises. When you’re in control of your means, you are also affected by it. It’s a shared responsibility. If you get one budget, you have one salary, which is something artists often don’t want to think about but it affects them so they need to be aware of it.”

Of having the world premiere of “Drowning Dry” in Locarno, the Lithuanian filmmaker says he is off to Switzerland with “no expectations,” and trying to seize the momentous quality of being selected for a large film festival. Commenting on the experience, Bareiša recalls making it into Sundance with Kavtaradze’s “Slow,” saying it was a “big joy.”

“The way Maria works was a real inspiration for me and that success was incredible. It happened in the way she envisioned it, which was really nice. You always have to be conscious of where you come from, and the language spoken in your film. Not all films have big premieres in big festivals. That was a success.”

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