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"Impressively poised ... Kawase's distinctive serenity and generosity of spirit remain valuable qualities in the cinema." – The Guardian
Confident and whip-smart, 16-year-old Kyoko can feel herself falling for moody boy-next-door Kaito. Each troubled in their own way – Kaito's parents have divorced and Kyoko's mother is dying of cancer – the two begin a gentle, tentative relationship. But when a typhoon sweeps through and deposits a dead body on the beach, the threatening nature of the world surrounding them becomes starkly apparent.
Enigmatic Japanese auteur Naomi Kawase (Hanezu, MIFF 2011) is back at her intoxicating, divisive best with Still the Water. A mystically charged and unabashedly poetic meditation on the awesome power of nature and our own scarce and beautiful fragility, this is filmmaking of great ambition and lofty ideals, whose images will linger with you long after the final credit has rolled.