Lithuanian Director Laurynas Bareiša Talks About “Drowning Dry” in Locarno

To say that the first feature film of Lithuanian filmmaker Laurynas Bareiša Pilgrims To say it was a success would be an understatement. First, the crime drama won the Horizons section award for Best Film at the 2021 Venice Film Festival. Then, it became Lithuania’s contender in the race for Best International Feature Film.

The plot of the film is simple: a woman travels to a small town with the brother of her ex-boyfriend, who was killed in a violent tragedy. The two men retrace his steps to try to unravel the circumstances of his death. But there is much more going on than meets the eye.

On Saturday afternoon, Bareiša presented the world premiere of his second feature film in international competition at the Locarno Film Festival, where the jury chaired by Jessica Hausner will decide the awards. He wrote, directed and photographed the film, which was also produced by his production company Afterschool.

Seses (Dry drowning) “The film tells the story of a group of people who are confronted with an almost tragic event,” Bareiša explains in a note on the website of the 77th edition of Locarno. While the Lithuanian title means “sisters,” the English title refers to a non-medical term used to describe acute lung injuries resulting from underwater accidents. “I used the irregular repetition of dry drowning as a structural element of the story to highlight the different ways of coping with trauma,” the filmmaker explains.

Watch the trailer for the film below, which is part of a strong presence of Lithuanian films at Locarno.

Before the world premiere of Dry drowningBareiša spoke to THRThis is Georg Szalai about x.

It is often said that the second feature film can be a real challenge for filmmakers. How did you choose your subject and did you encounter any difficulties or doubts after the great success of your first feature film?

No. For this film, the process was really tied to the first film. When it came out, and because of the awards it won and all that, it was very hard psychologically to be in that moment. And for this film, I just started writing because I was given great advice: if you have problems, just get over them. I kept myself busy. Developing the second film is hard because people have different expectations. But it happened by itself.

For me, it’s like a complement to the first film. Because the first film was about the after and the after, and this film is more about this psychological state. The first film was a little more detached. In this film, I wanted to address the most difficult moments. And it was very simple for me, I just kept working.

Your dialogues sound very natural. What is your secret to ensuring the authenticity of the dialogues?

For this film, I wanted the scenes to feel like they had been seen before, to get closer. There are repetitions and you can kind of guess…