Red Water

THE STORY: 1989 The Dalmatian Coast. The investigation into a young woman’s disappearance falters as Yugoslavia plunges into civil war. Another three decades will pass before the truth is revealed. In a fishing village on the coast of Croatia, Silva, a 17-year-old girl, disappears one night. She is beautiful and cheeky, admired by many; but the police investigation led by Inspector Gorki Sain reveals a more complex portrait of Silva than her family believed. She dabbled in drugs and resold heroin. The police investigation is brought to a halt as Tito’s Yugoslavia descends into civil war. Only the family of the young woman stubbornly continues the search, amid the upheavals of Croatian society, from the fall of communism, through the 1991-1995 civil war, to the explosion of tourism with its toxic land speculation and corruption. Much happens as if we were witnessing vengeful providence at work in an ancient tragedy, in this case, set off by a sordid crime.