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Debut Feature Titanic Ocean to Premiere at Cannes Un Certain Regard
The film follows a 17-year-old student at a Japanese boarding school where girls train to become professional mermaids. It blends Greek myth with underwater performance and themes of voice and identity.
May 19, 4:58 AM·1m read1 source
VarietyAudio version
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A Japanese-language coming-of-age drama set inside a boarding school for professional mermaids will premiere at Cannes Un Certain Regard on May 20. The story centers on 17-year-old Akame, known as Deep Sea, as she learns underwater performance, navigates relationships, and develops her voice.
The production is an international co-production led by Maria Drandaki of Homemade Films with partners from Greece, Germany, Romania, Spain, France and Japan.
The film was shot entirely in Japan with a Japanese cast and crew. It marks the director's first feature after several short films and combines Greek myth, pop aesthetics, and imagery built around water. Water functions as the central visual and emotional element, contrasting the manufactured environment of the school with the open ocean.
The director described the real ocean as a place of freedom and self-discovery.
Song and voice serve as key storytelling tools.
The director drew on the Greek myth of the Sirens to shape the main character's inner journey from silence to expression. The lead character's relationship with her coach involves longing and desire across species boundaries, with the coach portrayed as human and the student as a mermaid wearing a silicone tail.
The director said the transition from short films to a feature required managing a larger production that included difficult underwater filming and extended post-production work with editing, sound design and visual effects.
