Having ‘the water inside’ might spell doom or freedom in this meditative Spanish drama.

Ana (Luna Pamiés) and her friends seem like any teens the world over, spending their summer lying by the river, teasing, smoking, flirting and talking about their dreams for the future. Ana and José (Alberto Olmo) have a flirtation that turns into a summer romance but his father wants him to end his relationship as local superstition (or misogyny) believes no good will come from a connection with anyone from her family. Her grandmother (Nieve de Medina) survived a brutal marriage and her mother (Bárbara Lennie) runs a bar and dates a succession of men including (gasp!) foreigners.

Interwoven with this story is a local legend about a woman who was pulled away by the river when it flooded as she had the ‘water inside her’. Set in director Elena López Riera’s hometown of Orihuela in Valencia where the river disastrously floods every few decades, she drops in straight to camera interviews with local women twho recount what they have been told about the legend. We also see news footage of the past flood. Although referred in the film synopsis as experimental, these elements work as quite a measured and balanced counterpoint to the slow narrative of Ana’s story.

It’s not hard to divine the metaphor with ‘having the water inside’ as women having independent wills. Ana is an example of one who can’t wait to leave the town, she doesn’t know where to, just as far as the river will take her. The river might be danger or salvation.

It’s a solid first feature, maybe lacking a bit of subtlety in its messaging but held together by the performances of the three female leads.

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