A Handful of Water is one of the several Indiepix films I watch each month. Why? Well, because you hit a point in your life where CG raccoons and never-ending online debate make you want to watch Germany’s greatest living actor interact with human beings. It’s a great first feature from director Jakob Zapf that tells a heart-warming tale about thumbing your nose at Immigration cops.
What’s up with Modern World Cinema?
As much as modern World Cinema adapts its stories from the United States, they also stand apart. A Handful of Water would have went straight to a streamer in the US, if it got made at all. Why? Because as more hedge funds and related financial groups become involved in productions, then everything at the cineplex becomes the equivalent of filmed fast food.
There is no money to be made in being fancy. Hell, no one is making money about adults doing adult things and having a basic conservation. You can’t even get that on TV anymore where the fantastical is now stepping in for people interacting with each other.
When you even get a dash of that, it leads towards melodrama and preachy lessons. Much of A Handful of Water is about how you can leave your past behind you. Sure, life carries on and you begin finding new ways to relate to the changing world. I appreciate how the film handles it, but damn if it couldn’t have gone trite fast.
A Handful of Water comes to Home Video
Indiepix brings A Handful of Water to DVD with an audio commentary from the director and a trailer. In 2023, that’s not great, but it’s better than nothing. I hate that we’re at that point in home video presentations. But, we’ve got a generation trained to expect nothing from watching movies due to streaming.
The A/V Quality is typical for standard definition. I would whine and moan about that, but we have a generation of film nerds that are getting into VHS. So, I guess the point is moot. Pick it up for something different.
