Australian farmer Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe) goes in search of his three missing sons and bring their bodies home in 1919 Turkey where his sons were believed to be killed four years earlier in the Battle of Gallipoli.  He has obstacles placed in his path as he tries to find a measure of peace on his journey.  He finds the war-widowed Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) and stays in her hotel as she fights against the attempts by her dead husband’s brother to marry her.  THE WATER DIVINER started with a line the writers found in a War Graves Unit journal about an old Australian who showed up looking for his sons and it served as an inspiration for the script which would become the directorial debut of Russelll Crowe. 

 

The movie is very much about finding peace and forgiveness in addition to painting a picture of turkey trying to maintain their identity after the First World War as the victors want to split up the Ottoman Empire while trying to fight off the invading Greeks.  THE WATER DIVINER offers a very balanced look at Turkey (to a point) after World War One from what the British are trying to do with the War Graves Unit to Turkish identity to going against customs. Major Hasan presents the point of view of the Turkish people while you also get to see the Battle of Gallipoli from the POV of the ANZAC force too (the movie isn’t without its own controversy as the descendants of the Greek genocide among others protested the movie).  Historical dramas give us a window to find out about history and hopefully do our digging to learn about certain periods in time because historical dramas slant events to the filmmaker's own point of view which may not align with everyone else's in the name of entertainment.  I want to see what movie Russell Crowe directs next.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

THE MAKING OF THE WATER DIVINER (22 minutes)-   go behind-the-scenes with Russell Crowe, cast, and crew in the making of the movie which required detail, collaboration, and being prepared to be relentless to make this film along with the theatrical trailer showing at the end of it

THE BATTLE OF GALLIPOLI- Russell Crowe talks about the famous battle and his movie

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  Russell Crowe impresses with his directorial debut with THE WATER DIVINER and he can’t wait to do it again as I hope he does direct another movie soon.

 

This review is ©8-1-2015 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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