_{Under Water by Edgar Kapp and Kuba Szutkowski}

The logline says it all. Or maybe it doesn’t. We are told how Under Water is a dark offbeat comedy drama about “the survival of the fittest, rabbit holes of conspiracy theories and a challenging childhood.” What it doesn’t say is that the audience is driven to extremes within a psychodrama that is as hilariously absurdist as it is emotionally jarring. Nor that it delivers a series of sublimely expressive and moving performances from a highly assured cast of actors.

The film is about death, inheritance and a recalcitrant mother, played by Julia van de Graaff, also the film’s producer, who may or not be suffering from early dementia, but who is certainly obsessed with conspiracy theories, and consequently has turned her house into a fortress. She is also a woman who has always ruled her household with a rod of iron, subjecting her daughters (as we see in flashbacks) to psychological torture as she incarcerates them within their subterranean bedroom/cell.

Hence the manic, uptight, unpredictable and sometimes lachrymose behaviour of eldest daughter Foekje, played by Elisa Beuger, who, decades later, is currently struggling to forgive her dentist husband (Stijn Westenend) for the affair he had with the oral hygienist in his employ. As Foekje works out marital matters in her head, she has taken to living in an expensive hotel that she can’t afford.

Together, the hard-up couple attempt to persuade her mother to sign over the deeds to her house so that she can live out her final days in a care home. Which means that they can access the big bucks when a compulsory purchase order for the house finally goes through, allowing for the construction of a dam within the locality.

Under Water is an adaptation of the theatre play ‘Apocalypse How’ by Simon Weeda, which was based on an idea by LYNX Film. When Van de Graaff produced the play in 2019, she asked directors Kapp and Szutkowski to see if it could be adapted to a feature film. After writing the screenplay together with her, the pair grabbed with both hands the opportunity to direct. The original cast members reprised their roles in the film.

“Under Water has become the film it is because of what LYNX built up with Elisa and Stijn in the process of staging of the play,” comments Van de Graaff. “Despite the great differences between theatre play and film script, the fact that we knew our parts so well and were already attuned to each other at the very first reading has given the film much of its essence and its soul.”

The comic interludes that punctuate the drama are a necessity, the filmmakers argue. “It was quite a challenge because nobody in the list of characters is really likeable,” says co-director Szutkowski. “It's quite a hard story to tell - but that's also what we liked about it.” That said, the original theatre play was a lot more slapstick and played more for laughs. This had to be considerably toned down in the film adaptation. To visualise the core psychological dilemma, it was necessary also to dramatize the past lives of the daughters, at which point the seriousness of Foekje’s back story of abuse and neglect could not be ignored, Kapp and Szutkowski point out.

When the film world-premiered at the Film by the Sea festival in Vlissingen, in the audience was a buyer from Dutch distributor Amstel Film who promptly acquired the film for release in late January 2023. Before that, the film competes this month in Warsaw International Film Festival’s 1-2 Competition, before travelling to Austin, Texas for its US premiere in the Narrative Competition, where producer Van de Graaff will be looking to attract major Stateside sales and distribution interest.

“The fact that as a Dutch-language film it was selected out of 5400 films, and then nominated in the US for the Narrative Feature Jury Award with only five other features, is quite an achievement in itself,” Van de Graaff points out.

Under Water is produced by LYNX Film. Distribution in the Netherlands is handled by Amstel Film. It is supported by Norma Fund, Prins Bernhard Culture Fund, Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot, Gemeente Rotterdam and Rotterlicht.
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