Giovanni and the Water Ballet

Ten-year-old Giovanni is the only boy in a world of swimsuits, nose clips, glittery makeup and chattering girls. For the last four years, it’s been his dream to be the first boy to enter the Dutch synchronized swimming championship. He’s got just one more exam to go – in four weeks’ time. So he practices doing the splits, rehearses difficult swimming strokes and endures strict instructions from the teachers.

Giovanni is unfazed by the teasing at school, because at least he’s doing what he really wants. Karate is simply not his kind of thing. And as he explains to his steady girlfriend Kim, who has supported him through thick and thin, if he manages to get to the championship, he will really have achieved something. They chat at length—in the car and in graffiti-clad tunnels—about the opposition Giovanni is meeting from the Swimming Association, and about the list of nice girls he’d like to go out with after Kim. Director Astrid Bussink sketches an endearing portrait of a boy headed straight for his goal, with stirring music and beautiful underwater scenes in which time stands still.