Themes: Sibling Relationships, Looking For Love, Unrequited Love
Main Cast: Denis Lavant, Chulpan Khamatova, Philippe Clay, Terrence Gillespie, E.J. Callahan
Release Year: 1999
Country: DE
Run Time: 86 minutes
Plot
Drawing from the influences of Georges Méliès, Jean Vigo, Buster Keaton, and Franz Kafka, noted German filmmaker Veit Helmer directs this atmospheric, darkly comic film about attendants at a public swimming pool. Lonely Anton (Denis Lavant) watches over his bathhouse located in the midst of a barren industrial moonscape. He spends much of his time pining for a life on the ocean and thinking of ways to trick his sightless father into believing that their run-down establishment is actually thriving. Anton's narrow world comes crashing down when his wife spurns him after her father is killed in one of Anton's pools because of his devious brother Gregor's misdeeds. Gregor hopes to raze the place in order to put up some slick development project, but Anton and the pool's bizarre assortment of regulars band together to save the historic building. Soon Anton finds himself struggling valiantly to save both his dad's prized bathhouse and to win back the woman he loves. Tuvalu was screened at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Cast
Denis Lavant - Anton
Chulpan Khamatova - Eva
Philippe Clay - Karl
Terrence Gillespie - Gregor
E.J. Callahan
Djocko Rossitch; Catalina Murgea; Tudor Georgiev
Credit
Alexander Manasse - Art Director, Boriana Mintcheva - Costume Designer, Borrana Dermendjiana - First Assistant Director, Veit Helmer - Director, Araksi Mouhibian - Editor, Vladimir Andreev - Executive Producer, George Balkanski - Executive Producer, Jürgen Knieper - Composer (Music Score), Emil Christov - Cinematographer, Veit Helmer - Producer, Svetlozar Georgiev - Sound/Sound Designer, Veit Helmer - Screenwriter, Michaela Beck - Screenwriter
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has 2 meanings:
Meaning #1:
a small island republic on the Tuvalu islands; formerly part of the British colony of Gilbert and Ellice Islands until it withdrew in 1975 and became independent of the United Kingdom in 1978
Tuvalu is a 1999 experimental movie from Germany. The style evokes early 20th Century Silent movies and motifs commonly found in German expressionism. The sparse dialog is presented in a mix of European languages. The film stars Denis Lavant as Anton and Chulpan Khamatova as Eva.
The film charts the characters' comic efforts to escape across the sea to the island of Tuvalu.
