RKS 2025 Film: “Drowning Dry” (Sesė)

The Lithuanian title of the film is “Sesė” meaning sisters but the English title is “Drowning Dry”. Both titles co-exist in a symbiotic relationship.

Drowning dry happens after a near drowning victim has their lungs drained of water by various revival techniques, I know well being a member of the elite Royal Lifesaving Society, yet encounters muscle spasms closing the airway and preventing air from entering the lungs. Death may result from a drowning dry sometimes referred to as a secondary drowning.

All main characters in the film appear metaphorically to be near drowning victims not immediately felled by trauma or tragedy yet suffering delayed consequences afterwards. It prods you with an unasked question: is psychological drowning dry an essential element of the human condition?

“Drowning Dry” is a film intentionally lacking temporal continuity zig zagging over some 9 different time scenarios where fate is determined by differing circumstances. It tests your imagination and intellectual abilities with what could have happened, what didn’t happen and what happened.

The film commences with Lukas (Paulius Markevicius) winning an MMA championship. Ernesta (Gelmine Glemzaite), his wife, cries wishing he should have had the shit kicked out of him so that he would give up the sport.

Lukas, Ernesta and her sister Juste (Agne Kaktaite) and her husband Tomas (Giedrius Kiela) with their two children Urte and Kristupas drive up to the sisters’ summer home. They chat, eat, drink and the sisters even ham it up with a short dance routine. At the lake Tomas playfully drops daughter Urte into the water and she doesn’t surface. Then temporal discontinuity takes over teasing the viewer with what could have happened, what didn’t happen and what happened. With great intellectual strain by the end of the film the viewer may piece together what actually happened but it is either a tortuous or playful experience depending on the psyche of the viewer.

Director Laurynas Bareiša drops hinting breadcrumbs throughout leading to a possible “complete story” despite the temporal discontinuity. The viewer must use some creative interpretation of events to assemble the “complete story” and even if doing so there is no certainty of correctness. In fact the viewer may have been intentionally duped by Bareiša into believing the film is more complicated than it really is!

Here is the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWglHzfxlNw

The United States theatrical run commences 18July2025 and will be showing 13November2025 in Canada at the European Union Film Festival.

RKS 2025 Film Rating: 87/100.