THE STORY – To celebrate Lukas’ victory at the martial arts tournament and Tomas’ birthday party, their wives, Juste and Ernesta, organize a weekend at the summer house with their families. It was supposed to be a quiet weekend in the countryside.
THE CAST – Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela, Paulius Markevičius, Indre Patkauskaite, Indre Patkauskaite & Olivija Eva Viliüné
THE TEAM – Laurynas Bareiša (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 88 Minutes
“Drowning Dry,” a Lithuanian film that premiered at various film festivals last year, including a U.S. premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, is now being released to a wider audience. Co-produced by Academy Award winner Matiss Kaza (“Flow“) and directed by Laurynas Bareiša, “Drowning Dry” won the Grand Prix at last year’s Taipei International Film Festival. It was also Lithuania’s official selection for the 2025 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, but was not selected. The success of the film is difficult to comprehend, as it’s mostly a slog, with nearly every minute of its brief, 88-minute runtime dragging and testing one’s patience. While the film finds humor amidst tragedy that’s later revealed, and there are a few compelling scenes and moments, it’s still exceedingly tedious. “Drowning Dry” is filled with mundane actions, uninteresting characters, and no real payoff.
“Drowning Dry” begins with a mixed martial arts fight in which Lukas (Paulius Markevičius) easily defeats his opponent. However, backstage, his celebration is cut short when his wife, Ernesta (Gelminė Glemžaitė), seems strangely sad that her husband has triumphed. Ernesta and her sister, Juste (Agnė Kaktaitė), have planned a countryside getaway for the siblings, as well as for Lukas and Ernesta’s young son, and her sister’s husband, Tomas (Giedrius Kiela), and their young daughter. Things go awry when Tomas and Juste’s daughter nearly drowns, leading to a tragic event that ruins their lives.
There’s a strange rhythm to the film; while the confusion that accompanies the slow pace and frequent time jumps was likely intentional, this doesn’t make it any easier to stomach. It doesn’t help that the little dialogue that exists is largely uninteresting, and the significant silences typically consist of characters performing mundane tasks, such as eating, unpacking, and scrolling on their phones. This sort of mundanity may work in other movies, but it doesn’t succeed here. And the characters have no real development — although, to be fair, they’re not given much in the way of personalities to begin with. The non-linear structure may be imaginative, but it lacks the emotional depth necessary to engage us with these characters.
Bareiša’s film aims to explore trauma, but by the time we’re introduced to the traumatic events, there’s little time to dive deep into these issues. There’s no nuance here, and while the humor amidst tragedy is somewhat appreciated, this isn’t enough to ramp up the emotional nature of these reveals. Bareiša seems to be reflecting on grief’s quiet aftermath — the silences that follow tragedy — but the film’s emotional detachment makes it hard to connect with that message. The director, who also wrote the script, deliberately withholds a lot from the viewer; this can sometimes be a good thing, but in this instance, it’s frustrating because there’s no real payoff. The film is essentially slice-of-life cinema, featuring non-linear storytelling that can be difficult to follow. Even when you think you understand what’s going on, there’s another jarring cut that only exacerbates the general confusion. We get brief jolts of energy when the sisters dance to songs like “I Love You Always Forever,” but this is short-lived, as we are once again forced to watch the families engage in very uninteresting activities.
It’s hard to understand why “Drowning Dry” won the Best Director and Best Performance awards at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival. The directing isn’t anything noteworthy, and could even be considered dull, and the performances are unmemorable. This is Bareiša’s second film (following 2021’s “Pilgrims”), and there’s the question of what exactly his film is trying to convey. Some people may connect with it, while others may find it a chore to get through (this particular reviewer falls into the latter category). And while stillness can occasionally be effective, there’s so much in this film that it sometimes appears that the screen has frozen (which is not the case). The cast is perfectly fine, but they’re given very little to do. They also often talk over one another, which, if not intentional, should be considered a major slight on the editor’s part for not choosing better takes.
Despite moments of promise, “Drowning Dry“ lacks narrative cohesion and emotional resonance. The title may gesture at quiet devastation, but for the viewer, the experience feels more numbing than profound.
