This film is part of Rentals
Still the Water
Naomi Kawase’s visually ravishing, beautifully composed film tells the story of two youths growing up and falling in love on a Japanese island.
Director: Naomi Kawase
Overview
Naomi Kawase’s visually ravishing, beautifully composed film tells the story of two youths, Kyoto and Kaito, as they grow up and fall in love on a small island off the Japanese mainland.
A film of magnificent natural beauty and philosophical depth, it contrasts its young protagonists burgeoning romance with other relationships – and lives – that are drawing to a close. Kyoto’s mother is a shaman with a terminal illness, seeing out her days in the shade of the family’s 400-year-old banyan tree, while Kaito's parents adjust to the reality of their recent separation. Beautifully composed and deeply moving, Still the Water continues the humanist, family-oriented traditions of classic Japanese cinema in assured, visually intoxicating style.
Related
The Lunchbox The Lunchbox
Drama 2013 105 mins Director: Ritesh Batra
Mismatched lunchboxes lead to an unlikely romance in this exquisite Indian drama, brimful of tantalising food and elegantly delivered wisdom.
End of the Century End of the Century
Romance 2019 84 mins Director: Lucio Castro
A chance encounter reconnects two men in this heart-breaking lament on love, lust and missed opportunities.
Young Hearts Young Hearts
Drama 2024 99 mins Director: Anthony Schatteman
A gentle and sincere story of queer love between two young teenage boys, told with warmth and humour.
Solo Solo
Drama 2025 102 mins Director: Sophie Dupuis
Emerging drag queen Simon begins a passionate, yet destructive relationship with an alluring new man, as his mother re-enters his life after 15 years
A Night Like This A Night Like This
Drama 2025 101 mins Director: Liam Calvert
Two seemingly mismatched men form an unexpected connection over the course of one cold London night, in this warm-hearted debut from Liam Calvert.
Slow Slow
Romance 2023 108 mins Director: Marija Kavtaradze
Sundance award-winning love story about the evolving connection between a dancer and sign-language interpreter, when the man reveals he’s asexual.
Saint Omer Saint Omer
Drama 2022 122 mins Director: Alice Diop
Alice Diop reinvents the courtroom drama in this concentrated, gripping study of a writer and the young African woman accused of murdering her own daughter. Based on a true story.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Documentary 2023 89 mins Director: Anna Hints
A remarkable and award-winning documentary exploring female solidarity through a soothing ancient tradition.
Four Daughters Four Daughters
Drama-documentary 2023 103 mins Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
The mother-daughter relationship is explored to cathartic effect in this complex and poignant hybrid documentary about a woman and her missing daughters.
Timestalker Timestalker
Fantasy 2024 89 mins Director: Alice Lowe
What if unrequited love spanned the centuries? Alice Lowe's time-jumping fantasy rom-com is a colourful, darkly funny treat.
The Taste of Mango The Taste of Mango
Documentary 2023 75 mins Director: Chloe Abrahams
Sleepwalking into submerged depths of memory, a mother’s dream and a daughter’s beckoning, this fascinating film tenderly untangles the knots of the past.
A New Kind of Wilderness A New Kind of Wilderness
Documentary 2024 84 mins Director: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen
A tragedy shatters the idyllic world of a family living off-grid in the Norwegian wilderness.
Rodeo Rodeo
Drama 2022 106 mins Director: Lola Quivoron
French debut director Lola Quivoron revs up with a ferocious tale of a woman kickstarting a new life in the world of guerrilla motocross racing.
Clemency Clemency
Drama 2019 112 mins Director: Chinonye Chukwu
Alfre Woodard is quietly devastating as a weary prison warden presiding over her twelfth execution, in this Sundance-winning death row drama.
Ida Ida
Drama 2014 82 mins Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
An exquisitely shot, moving drama about a Polish nun exploring her family past, which won a BAFTA for director Pawel Pawlikowski.
Plan 75 Plan 75
Science Fiction 2022 113 mins Director: Chie Hayakawa
Faced with a rapidly ageing population, a government in near-future Japan rolls out an unsettling agenda.
Cairo Conspiracy Cairo Conspiracy
Drama 2022 126 mins Director: Tarik Saleh
A fisherman’s son is offered a place at a prestigious Islamic school in Cairo and finds himself drawn into a religious and political power struggle.
The Night of the 12th The Night of the 12th
Drama 2022 114 mins Director: Dominik Moll
A newly promoted detective is assigned to a young woman’s chilling murder in this deeply arresting crime thriller based on true events.