El agua

In Elena López Riera’s assured and daring debut, it is summertime in southeastern Spain. Teenage Ana and her friends pass the time smoking, drinking, and dreaming up how they’ll escape their decaying village. When she falls in love with the out-of-towner José, Ana’s grandmother and mother warn her of an impending storm, one that threatens to cause the cursed river to overflow and sweep Ana and her beauty away, as it has for generations of other local women. Under a crackling sky, Riera blends magical realism, documentary, and mysticism into a stunning, naturalist folktale about the desire to break free of tradition – and love without consequence.