El agua

It is summer in a small village in south-eastern Spain. A storm threatens to cause the river that runs through it to overflow again. A popular old belief claims that some women are predestined to disappear with each new flood, because they have the “water inside”.
A band of young people is trying to overcome the weariness of a summer in the village that smells of death by smoking, dancing, and lusting after each other. In this electric atmosphere that precedes the storm, Ana and José live a love affair until the storm bursts.

Biography Elena López Riera

Elena López Riera was born in Orihuela (Spain) in 1982. After completing her doctoral thesis on contemporary Argentinean cinema, she teaches comparative literature at the University of Geneva, Carlos III University in Madrid and Valencia. She directed the short films Pueblo (presented at the Quinzaine des réalisateurs of Cannes Film Festival 2015, and Las vísceras (presented at the Locarno Festival, international competition Pardi di domani) Her latest short film Los que desean was nominated for the European Film Awards and won the Pardino d’Oro at the Locarno Festival in 2018. El agua, selected for the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, is her first feature film.