The Shape of Water

2DORSS15
Director:Guillermo del Toro
Cast:Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones
Premiere:15. February 2018
Length:119 minutes
Genre:Fantasy, Drama, Adventurous

The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water; Guillermo del Toro, 2017, OV (ang.) + ST (sk); Guillermo del Toro, 2017, versions: OR,SS,

Director: Guillermo del Toro • Scenario: Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor • Camera: Dan Laustsen • Music: Alexandre Desplat • Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer

During escalating Cold War in the early 1960s, a mute and lonely Elisa works as a cleaning lady at a high-security government laboratory where she discovers a new specimen, a mysterious marine creature. While Elisa becomes drawn to it, the facility head Richard Strickland only desires to take the creature apart to gain a scientific edge over the Soviets with the same dominance he exerts over his wife. His sickening ways are outweighed by Elisa’s black co-worker, Zelda, and gay neighbour, Giles, who provide much of the film’s comedic relief through their embodiment and subversion of the era’s stereotypes. Shot in a rich, stylised palette of greens and browns, set partly above an old but working cinema and filled with little visual effects, this other-worldly fable by master story teller Guillermo del Toro is hardly a fantasy. In essence, it is a film about tolerance, an allegory for all of history’s outcasts that attempts to shine a light on the conditions from which real monsters are born.

Length: 119 min

Year: 2017
Local premiere date: 15. February 2018

Country of origin:

  • United states of America

Language version:

OR - Original version
SS - Slovak subtitles

Director: Guillermo del Toro • Scenario: Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor • Camera: Dan Laustsen • Music: Alexandre Desplat • Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer

During escalating Cold War in the early 1960s, a mute and lonely Elisa works as a cleaning lady at a high-security government laboratory where she discovers a new specimen, a mysterious marine creature. While Elisa becomes drawn to it, the facility head Richard Strickland only desires to take the creature apart to gain a scientific edge over the Soviets with the same dominance he exerts over his wife. His sickening ways are outweighed by Elisa’s black co-worker, Zelda, and gay neighbour, Giles, who provide much of the film’s comedic relief through their embodiment and subversion of the era’s stereotypes. Shot in a rich, stylised palette of greens and browns, set partly above an old but working cinema and filled with little visual effects, this other-worldly fable by master story teller Guillermo del Toro is hardly a fantasy. In essence, it is a film about tolerance, an allegory for all of history’s outcasts that attempts to shine a light on the conditions from which real monsters are born.

Year: 2017
Local premiere date: 15. February 2018

Country of origin:

  • United states of America

Language version:

OR - Original version
SS - Slovak subtitles