The Water Diviner
Directed by Russell Crowe
- war
- drama
The story
In 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor travels to Turkey to discover the fate of his three sons, reported missing in action. Holding on to hope, Joshua must travel across the war-torn landscape to find the truth and his own peace.
What it’s like
Sun-bleached and dusty, with wide desert horizons, cracked earth and the blue-white glare of Anatolian midday giving way to amber evenings. The camera settles into patient, classical framing: landscapes held long enough to feel the heat, interiors lit by oil lamps and filtered daylight, and the solemn weight of ruined towns and battlefields under open sky. Sound leans on wind, hooves, distant voices and a restrained orchestral score that swells in grief rather than heroics. The mood is elegiac and quietly sorrowful, a slow grief-stricken journey that softens into tenderness when a widowed hotelier and a lonely grieving father find unexpected kinship. The pacing is unhurried, with long stretches of travel and conversation between bursts of wartime horror. Violence is present and sometimes harrowing: the Gallipoli battle sequences include bloody, chaotic combat and bodies, and a tense scene of wartime brutality, though gore stays mostly restrained. Best for viewers who enjoy historical dramas about loss and reconciliation, and who can handle war imagery without needing it to be softened.
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