Agua (film)

Plot

Thirty-four-year-old Goyo, a former open water swimming champion, has been hiding out in the desert. Wrongly accused of doping in the Santa Fe-Coronda Marathon, a 57 kilometer river swim, he has abandoned his career and his dreams.

Eight years later, Goyo returns to Santa Fe, where the marathon will be held again, to attempt to re-gain his title and clear his name. Goyo is inspired to attempt again after seeing a documentary about 6 fold long distance swimming world champion Edith van Dijk who plays herself in the movie.

However, long buried emotions come back to haunt him. He meets Chino, a stubborn and disciplined pool swimmer, who tries hard to be selected for the national team, but fails.

Cast

Distribution

The drama premiered on April 21, 2006 in Argentina at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, and opened wide in the country on September 21, 2006.

The picture was screened at various film festivals, including: the Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland; the Warsaw Film Festival, Poland; the Amiens International Film Festival, France; the Oslo International Film Festival, Norway; and others.

Critical reception

Robert Koehler, film critic for Variety magazine, gave the film a mixed review when reporting from the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival. He wrote, "Pretension swallows up Water, Veronica Chen's shallow follow-up to her fine 2001 debut, Smokers Only. Bookended by a hauntingly atmospheric opening sequence and a finale that makes the central characters' involvement with marathon swimming vivid and physical, the pic has a gaping hole in the middle. Hardly different in basic outline from innumerable recent sports films about outsiders and underdogs turning their lives around, the pic's only twist is an excessively and pointlessly elliptical storytelling gambit. Fest interest will be mild at best for a film with little commercial kick."

Awards

Wins

Nominations