From a mountain village surrounded by greenery and shrouded in fog (we are in Kerala, India) emerge two men and a van: they are waiting for a young and fearful girl whom the young man, her fiancé, has invited for a trip to the distant city. Here, shops, department stores and the beach are the two young people's experience of joy and serenity. But it soon gets dark and it is too late to return to the village. The third man, the owner of the van, called the Chief, is a rough, big bearded man. He takes them to a squalid and filthy motel on the outskirts of town, sends the boy to look for food and rapes the girl. Early in the morning they leave for the village. And amidst the mountains, woods and raging torrents, a finale of barbaric and crude violence unfolds. The whole story is framed by a fairy tale narrated with a voice-over, in which a virgin desired by a prince asks the Earth: but whose am I? The condition of women in some countries is still very backward. This is the denunciation of the film, which unfolds in a lyrical-intimist first part and in a second part of epic violence, where the three characters in the story are surrounded by a violent and hostile Nature (fog, rain, a rushing waterfall). Despite a few too many slow moments, the film is well narrated, powerful and not easily forgotten.
Review of Shadow of Water
