After the success of the second feature film “Glück/Bliss“, german director Henrika Kull is back with a new feature, Südsee – Salty Water, screening in competition, as an italian premiere at the 37° Bolzano Film Festival Bozen.
If in “Glück“, Kull portrayed the relationship between two women, sex workers, now, in “Salty Water” at the centre of the story there’s again a woman, a young girl in her 20’s, Anne (Liliane Amuat), in a temporary suspension state from reality, during her two intimate days with a stranger, Nuri, while the two wait for the conflict between the Israeli army and Hamas to “pause”.
Nothing really happens during those days and between the two, though everything happens. In a midst of a sexual tension arising but never exploding, Anne and Nuri (Dor Aloni) discuss about very important topics such as belonging to a country, professing one’s religion, defending a country, dreaming, having kids.
Henrika Kull explains how the film for her “was always about creating a tension in a very tensed place and make the audience feel the two should be together”.
Liliane Amuat describes her character and how Kull directed her through that acting full of silences, slightly touching, keeping things afloat, reflecting.
Plot
Anne and Nuri only know each other through a mutual friend when they spontaneously travel together to Nuri's parents' house in the mountains between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. As the conflict between the Israeli army and Hamas escalates, the two spend two intimate days by a pool under the Iron Dome.