Between Two Waters – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

Winner of the San Sebastián IFF, Between Two Waters is a beautiful and wonderfully affectionate Spanish drama telling the story of two brothers who went down very different paths in life and after many years, meet on the island of San Fernando. Israel, the younger of the siblings, is just getting out of prison. He wants to start all over again, but it's difficult to get a job in Andalusia – plagued by unemployment. He lives with the feeling that, apart from drugs, imprisonment and death, his hometown offers him nothing. His older brother Cheíto – a sailor whose life is also not without cares – tries to dissuade his brother from the life of a criminal. Lacuesta's film is intimate, focused on the characters, their gestures and bodies, and at the same time, as lively as flamenco and epic in depicting over a dozen years from the life of siblings. By sketching the social landscape of the poor South, the director avoids a patronizing tone and captures thus the tenderness and respect with which he approaches the characters. From rather inconspicuous moments, Lacuesta manages to sketch a melancholic portrait of arduous brotherly love.