On the Water (2020) User Reviews

This is how they used to make movies

[cd7 · 7/10 · 26 September 2022]

An oldschool feel for a soviet era flick. You could feel the era. Estonia used to make a ton of these kinds of movies.

The characters all seemed genuine. Probably, because they were young when this was supposedly took place and they remember it. Well written script. Nothing really out of place. The movie took me back to a time before i was alive, but I still felt everything was correct.

The kids acted quite well. The general feeling of being lost came though. I hope, as intended. Their interactions with the adults and the "adults" were perfect. Having the main character be a child, but him mostly just reacting to his world brilliant. That's what growing up is. I guess.

Inner gentleness and external tedium

[120watts · 8/10 · 30 November 2022]

This is a nice contribution to Estonian cinema.

In general, I find the Estonian genre of filmmaking to be less about heroism, incredible journeys and happy endings, and more about perceiving life - and this film is no exception. Here we find the protagonist to be a boy coming of age in Võromaa in the late Brezhnev period. It is a bit of a bleak setting, not because of any singular catastrophe, but rather the cumulative outcome of dull monotony interspersed with petty dramas. We see in some ways the unfairness of a cold and insular place, but also the simple joy and honest humour of everyday life. A big theme for me is the clash of an inner warm and gentle caring against a zeitgeist of tedium and pettiness, which of course is a microcosm of this time and place.

From an editorial perspective, I thought the pace was quite good. They managed to portray a general slowness and non-excitement while keeping the viewer engaged; the scenes were not allowed to drag on excessively and felt illuminating without seeming instrumentalized. The characters are all quite believable and each has their own personality, strengths and flaws.

This genre of film is not about imposing a particular morality, as such, and more about reflecting inwardly on familiarities and curiosities, and about getting to know a certain time and place, its mood, character and spirit.