Konstantina Kotzamani arrives at Cannes Un Certain Regard with her debut feature “Titanic Ocean,” a Japanese-language coming-of-age drama set inside a boarding school where teenage girls train to become professional mermaids.
The film premieres May 20 and follows 17-year-old Akame, aka “Deep Sea,” as she learns to perform underwater shows, navigate love, and discover the power of her own voice.
The international co-production was spearheaded by Maria Drandaki (Homemade Films), along with co-producers spanning Greece, Germany, Romania, Spain, France and Japan. Shot entirely in Japanese with a Japanese cast and crew, the film marks Kotzamani’s leap from acclaimed shorts, including “Limbo (2016),” “Electric Swan (2019)” and “What Mary Didn’t Know (2024),” into her most ambitious work to date, blending Greek myth, pop aesthetics and a tactile visual language built around water and female identity.
Variety spoke with Kotzamani and Drandaki ahead of the film’s premiere at Cannes.
How did you think about song and voice as part of the storytelling, rather than just score or performance element?
