Konstantina Kotzamani arrives at Cannes Un Sure Regard along with her debut function “Titanic Ocean,” a Japanese-language coming-of-age drama set inside a boarding faculty the place teenage women practice to turn out to be skilled mermaids.
The movie premieres Might 20 and follows 17-year-old Akame, aka “Deep Sea,” as she learns to carry out underwater exhibits, navigate love, and uncover the facility of her personal voice.
The worldwide co-production was spearheaded by Maria Drandaki (Homemade Films), together with co-producers spanning Greece, Germany, Romania, Spain, France and Japan. Shot solely in Japanese with a Japanese forged and crew, the movie marks Kotzamani’s leap from acclaimed shorts, together with “Limbo (2016),” “Electric Swan (2019)” and “What Mary Didn’t Know (2024),” into her most formidable work up to now, mixing Greek fantasy, pop aesthetics and a tactile visible language constructed round water and feminine identification.
Selection spoke with Kotzamani and Drandaki forward of the movie’s premiere at Cannes.
How did you concentrate on tune and voice as a part of the storytelling, reasonably than simply rating or efficiency ingredient?
Kotzamani: After I began writing about this mermaid faculty, the story of “The Little Mermaid” emerged, however much more strongly the traditional Greek fantasy of the Sirens: these monstrous but deeply female creatures who lure males towards the ocean by way of their voices, towards need, give up and the unknown.
As I constructed Akame (Deep Sea), the siren voice turned a projection of her inside arc. She begins as a lady who barely speaks, quiet and withdrawn. By means of her tune, her voice awakens and turns into a car for expressing her needs out loud, permitting her inside must emerge absolutely into the skin world. Her voice turns into highly effective sufficient to vary the tides, increase waves and rework the world round her.
Akame’s relationship along with her coach shifts into one thing constructed on longing, recognition, and need. Are you able to speak about that dynamic?
Kotzamani: Akame’s journey strikes by way of awakening, need and metamorphosis. The awakening of sexuality and the drive of affection are among the many deepest energies that emerge by way of each psyche and physique.
Love turns into a catalyst for Akame, however the love within the movie feels unsettling and inconceivable. It’s a forbidden relationship, not solely due to the hierarchy inside the faculty, but additionally due to the totally different species: he’s human and he or she is a mermaid, even when her tail is manufactured from silicone.
Water feels just like the movie’s organizing precept, visually and emotionally. When did it turn out to be the central language of the movie?
Kotzamani: It was clear from the start that the movie could be constructed across the conflict between artificiality and the natural. The water inside the college belongs to a manufactured world, very similar to the manufactured desires of the women. The actual ocean represents one thing limitless. A spot of freedom, the place you may really end up.
Whereas writing, a recurring childhood nightmare of an enormous wave returned to me. I introduced that concern into the movie. For me, making this movie turned a symbolic therapeutic necessity: to face the wave once more and rework it. Not into destruction, however into creation and female drive.
How did you are feeling in regards to the transition from quick movies to your first function?
Kotzamani: “Titanic Ocean” was formidable on each degree. Taking pictures in Japan, tough underwater filming, and a particularly demanding post-production with modifying, sound design and VFX. I used to be away from residence for nearly three years, which got here with an actual emotional price and durations of burnout.
What I additionally discovered very confronting in function filmmaking was the concept that a movie may now not exist solely as a private creative gesture, but additionally should enter the world as a product. The toughest half was defending your individual voice whereas permitting that voice to achieve others.
At what level did it turn out to be clear the movie needed to be shot in Japan with Japanese forged and crew?
Drandaki: From the very starting Konstantina needed to shoot the movie exterior Greece and Europe, within the language of the nation and with an area forged.
Though Japan was at all times her foremost inspiration, we did take into account different Asian international locations for a time and even scouted in Taiwan and Singapore whereas discussing the undertaking with producers from South Korea and China. However she at all times returned to Japan for aesthetic and cultural causes that have been core to the movie.
Throughout growth, we spent years in search of the fitting companions in Japan. By partnering with Happinet Phantom Studios and Mam Movie, we discovered a option to keep true to the center of the movie whereas additionally respecting the Japanese actuality.
The movie brings collectively many international companions. How did that degree of cross-border collaboration work in follow?
Drandaki: At Home made Movies, a lot of our movies are co-productions, however with “Titanic Ocean” this cross-border collaboration went to a different degree, working not solely with crews from 5 European international locations, but additionally primarily with forged and crew from Japan.
The movie belongs each to the West and the East, to Europe and Asia, and carries traits from all these cultures, movie industries and work ethics. This assembly of individuals and cultures was extremely inventive and infrequently explosive. What stored it collectively was Konstantina’s unparalleled expertise and artistic imaginative and prescient. Everybody who joined the movie understood and needed to be a part of that imaginative and prescient.
We additionally spent years discovering the fitting companions for each place, and plenty of months constructing a shared imaginative and prescient collectively. Behind that, we had a really robust manufacturing crew which stayed united all through this 10-year journey.
