Titanic Ocean Review: Magical World of Mermaids

Konstantina Kotzamani’s Titanic Ocean is a magical and unique coming-of-age tale, even if a portion of it veers into repetition.

Titanic Ocean isn’t the first feature film from the Greek filmmaker—her 2024 movie What Mary Didn’t Know runs at 54-minutes—but for all intents and purposes, her latest is a clear and confident step forward in her filmmaking career. There are shortcomings and notable moments of repetition, but Titanic Ocean broadly sidesteps these issues to present us with a charming and magical feminist fable.

The first and most notable aspect of Titanic Ocean that sets it apart from other similar films is its setting: a Japanese boarding school that trains teenagers to become professional mermaids. Their names given by the school include Deep Sea (Arisa Sasaki, of Hell Dogs), Eternal Sunset (Haruna Matsui, of Koi-suru keigo 24ji), and Yokohama Blue (Kotone Hanase, of Exit 8). Amidst the usual hormone-driven drama, the girls improve their breath-holding abilities, practice swimming and water-based performance skills, and learn what it takes to become a mythical being. Their goal is two-fold: to win an upcoming competition against teenagers from all around the globe, and following this, score successful jobs in the best aquariums in the world.

It’s an audacious set-up, but Kotzamani instantly imbues Titanic Ocean with a beguiling, transfixing aura. The opening credits play against a swimming pool backdrop, a swirling figure mystically moving through the water, Patricia Ferragud’s scintillating, ethereal original score further ensuring we won’t look away. Ferragud’s music is a constant delight, always used to craft an ambient aural atmosphere that binds effortlessly with the on-screen visuals. The same can also be said of Raphaël Vandenbussche’s (Eat the Night) cinematography, which is just as awe-inspiring and hypnotic as Titanic Ocean’s auditory landscape. These components propel Kotzamani’s film forward.

The style on show is strong, but there is also plenty of substance to Kotzamani’s screenplay, even if the unsubtle nature can sometimes be grating. The most striking example is a motto that she keeps revisiting: “Strong women make waves.” It’s a striking statement, especially amidst Titanic Ocean’s context, but for a film that is so visually propulsive, such relatively unimaginative script-writing feels noticeably out of place. Conversely, Kotzamani showcases real skill in depicting social isolation and teenage competitiveness. In one memorable shot, main character Deep Sea looks out longingly at a moon-lit city from the confines of her apartment, the irony of such a busy, bustling place being this isolating notable.

Titanic Ocean has a lot going on; it has a vast ensemble of characters and restlessly hops around different themes such as child abuse, eating disorders, and beauty standards. Kotzamani doesn’t always have a handle on everything that’s going on, which gives the film a muddled tone, and many characters are underdeveloped. Ones such as Yokohama Blue are interesting, as are relationships such as Deep Sea’s with teacher Kotaro (Masahiro Higashide, of Asako I & II), but nothing ever really coalesce into something wholly rounded. And yet Titanic Ocean remains evocative and mysteriously compelling. This is a brave, no-holds-barred, elegant piece of filmmaking that fits its subject matter perfectly.

Titanic Ocean premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard on May 20, 2026.