WALKING UNDER WATER

POLISH TITLE: BADJAO. DUCHY Z MORZA

Borneo. Somewhere on the edge of the Sulu and Celebes Seas lives a tribe of ocean nomads: the Badjao. They live like fish, spending most of their life in water. Their children learn to swim before they can walk, and adults have mastered the art of free diving to perfection. They can walk and hunt on the sea bed holding their breath for five minutes and their eyes are adapted to focus underwater. They are happy people in the beautiful underwater world. This could be our story twenty years ago, but it is not any more. Today, the Badjao are pushed to extinction by modern civilisation. They have become strangers on their own waters with no IDs, no citizenship and no money. We call them illegal immigrants.10-year-old Sari and his uncle Alexan, the last Badjao compressor diver from Mabul island, set out to sea. Alexan teaches Sari dangerous fishing techniques and he shares with him his wisdom and a lifetime experience as a Badjao.

GENRE:
documentary
COUNTRY:
Poland
RUNNING TIME:
76'
YEAR:
DIRECTING:
Eliza Kubarska
SCRIPT:
Eliza Kubarska
DOP:
Piotr Rosołowski, Lisa Strohmayer
EDITOR:
Bartosz Pietras
MUSIC:
Michał Jacaszek
PRODUCTION:
Braidmade Films

Eliza Kubarska »

Eliza Kubarska specialises in adventure filmmaking. She is an artist and director graduate of Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, and Wajda School of Film Directing.  Polish exploring alpinist and traveller.  Author of award winning feature documentaries such as:  “What Happened on Pam Island” (aka “Mountain Love Story”) set in Greenland, and “Walking Under Water”, about the sea nomads in Borneo,   winner of Hot Docs Special Jury Prize.  Her recent film is “K2-Touching the sky”.