The first footage from Constantina Kotzamani’s debut film has just arrived, and it’s unlike anything else in this year’s selection.
The Greek director has conjured something truly strange and irresistible: Dayglow’s fantasy of girls who train to become professional mermaids, and among them one learns that the costume is only the beginning.
Set in a Japanese boarding school where teenage girls learn to hold their breath, perform in front of crowds, and swim alongside sharks, the film follows 17-year-old Akame as she finds her voice, discovers her first love, and ultimately undergoes a transformation.
It taps into something primal—the same childhood longing that brought Daryl Hannah to life as a mermaid splash An icon, which has fueled a real-world mermaid performance subculture ever since. (This writer explored this obsession in a recent episode of It happened in Hollywoodwith Ron Howard and Brian Grazer pondering how to bring them on splash To life.)
As the clip shows, Kotzamani’s world is full of saturated colors and hypnotic ideas. It’s equal parts water spectacle and next-generation pressure cooker. It’s the kind of film that invents its own genre – part fantasy, part body horror, part J-pop fantasy.
A multinational co-production including Greece, Germany, Romania, France, Spain and Japan, the film features an all-Japanese cast led by Arisa Sasaki, with music by Patricia Viragaud and cinematography by Raphael Vandenbosch. International sales are managed by Paradise City Sales.
Un Certain Regard has a strong track record in this type of film – formal adventure films that leave audiences a little shaken. It’s the section that gave us Lucas Daunt Girl And Maryam Touzani Blue caftan Before the world catches up with them. Titanic ocean It has all the hallmarks of a cult object in the making. Are you holding your breath?
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