By Cáit Murphy

Taking place in a dormant village in Valencian orange-growing country, this vivid coming-of-age feature plays with documentary elements while ultimately eliding the magic of its folkloric premise. Seventeen-year-old Ana (Luna Pamiés) is the daughter of single mother and bar owner Isabella (Bárbara Lennie); Ana’s boyfriend José (Alberto Olmo), a pigeon-racing hobbyist, is being pressured by his father to focus on orange-harvesting instead of dating. Ana and her fun-loving friends discuss aspirations, romance, and local fairy tales. Grandmothers tell stories about the river’s supernatural flooding and its connection to disappearing women. Ana considers a future beyond the village (with or without José), and risks being swept away with the imminent flood. 

El agua’s scenes of work, family, leisure (from pigeon-painting to techno dancing) and nocturnal atmosphere are tenderly rendered by director Elena López Rivera, who also sensitively frames class and gender roles in contemporary rural Spain. The teenagers work in local factories and farms but dream of escaping; misogyny lingers in memories of domestic abuse and local gossip about Ana’s “cursed” maternal lineage. Throughout the film, Rivera intercuts documentary-style, direct-to-camera excerpts where older women recall local myths about a disappearing bride taken by the water, while news footage and eyewitness smartphone videos of real, devastating flooding in the area add to the quasi-non-fictional aesthetic. However, these creative flourishes ultimately distract from the focus on the story: the technique is too contrived for its own good, and it diminishes the film’s resonance. What could be seen as creative flourishes of social and magical realism also disrupt our focus on the film’s thoughtfully slow-paced scenes and character tensions; its repeated expository role feels too contrived for its own good.

Cait Murphy