The Greek director Konstantina Kotzamani has a massive short film haul in her career, most of which have played at the world’s central events. Washingtonia premiered at the Berlinale. Yellow Fieber and What Mary Didn’t Know were at Locarno. Electric Swam was at the Venice Film Festival, and Limbo was at the Semaine de la Critique of the Cannes Film Festival. Ten years after her first appearance at the Croisette, the filmmaker finally returns with her debut feature, Titanic Ocean. The film was on multiple lists of rumored titles for the French event, but it was a late addition to the line-up, slated for the Un Certain Regard, the section for newer authors.
Based on the subculture of mermaiding, in which individuals learn to swim with fins, the film narrates a school of mermaids in Japan. A group of young girls enrolls in a rigorous academy dedicated to the formation of mermaid performers, training them for international contests, and eventually, to work in resorts and aquaria with massive water tanks. We follow Deep Sea (Arisa Sasaki), a committed siren-to-be who obsesses over aquatic breathing, using nose expanders to widen her lung capacity, and spends excessive time breathing underwater. Suddenly, in one of the pool trainings, she drowns, and her coach, Kotaro (Masahiro Higashide), saves her through mouth-to-mouth breathing. However, the young girl starts to present abilities that turn her into a full-capacity mermaid, such as the seduction through singing. Thus, the school’s principal, Miss Etsuko (Sei Matobu), ought to guide her and the other girls, including Imagica (Melina Mardini), Eternal Sunset (Haruna Matsui), and Yokohama Blue (Kotone Hanase), to finish their training and win the contest.
Despite being one of the most promising names of the new Greek filmmaking, Kotzamani’s first feature effort is set in Japan. The entire cast is Japanese, and the film draws on the country’s mermaiding culture to build its mythology. During the first scene, we already understand the intentions of the director visually. Raphaël Vandenbussche’s cinematography imparts an utterly artificial look, filled with neon tones that correspond to the subculture’s unnatural aspect. All of those girls wear colorful swimsuits that suit their personalities, while they dye their hair to compose their mermaid personas. In this sense, make-up by Simion Bianca and hairstyling by George Bogdan Negrisan contribute directly to the camera composition. There are tons of colors in the eyeshades and pearls, combining with the vibrance of the hair, addressing the artificiality and unconventionality of that sport. In one of the scenes, an argument between a mother and the principal, the parent argues that mermaiding is filling a girl’s head with emptiness. Thus, everyone on the outside judges the practice of that specific type of swimming, even if it is what those girls love.
In this aspect, the project transitions between the mystical and the growth of those ladies who have a problem with each other; they are competitors, fighting for the spotlight. Still, the most fascinating relationship between the characters is the friendship of Deep Sea and Yokohama Blue, two girls who share the dorm and suffer from constant pressure and nightmares. There is a beautiful bond in that connection, featuring two young women who want to achieve something difficult and demanding, in an environment of intense competition. On the same wavelength, the script by Kotzamani abandons the development of the other girls, placing them as mere elements in that story. In the meantime, there are characters representing authority connecting with the lead individuals solely to move the story forward, such as the principal and the coach. One is the general in that military-like venue, and the other falls in love with the curse of the siren, leading him to the verge of danger. Ultimately, their purpose is to develop the lead character’s arc, while they are the backbone of this story.
Titanic Ocean thrives mostly when it abuses its visual elements, particularly the artificiality that suits the practice of mermaiding. The color grading, make-up, hairstyling, and the costume design construct this look that resembles the industrial and the manufactured, leaning toward the absurdity that the society judges and points fingers at. However, when it unveils its narrative threads, the lack of cohesion in the development of the supporting characters diminishes the storytelling. It suggests a more prominent involvement of those girls in the introduction, but it does not deliver that. Still, the long-awaited debut by Konstantina Kotzamani teases a fascinating director in the making, who manages to craft visually intriguing imagery among a universe where the reality and myth collide.
Titanic Ocean recently played at the Cannes Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the Cannes site for the title.
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