The Water Diviner
All actors and roles (10)
All team (105)
Short description
In 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor travels to Turkey in search of his three sons, who were reported missing after the Gallipoli campaign. Before she died, his wife asked him to bring the boys home, and that promise drives him across a country still marked by the war. In Constantinople, under British occupation, he meets a young boy named Orhan and his mother, Ayshe, while pursuing answers about what happened to his family at Gallipoli. The film stars Russell Crowe as Joshua, with Olga Kurylenko as Ayshe, Yılmaz Erdoğan as Major Hasan, Cem Yılmaz as Sgt. Jemal, Jai Courtney as Lt. Colonel Hughes and Ryan Corr as Arthur Connor.
The Water Diviner is a drama set against the aftermath of the First World War, made in Australia and the United States from a screenplay by Andrew Knight and Andrew Anastasios. It was released at the end of 2014 and runs 112 minutes. It was Russell Crowe's second directorial effort, following Texas in 2002 and preceding Poker Face in 2022 and What Love Builds in 2026. Its production budget was 23 million USD, and it took about 35 million USD worldwide.
Audience response has been positive: on IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from around 81,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.8 out of 10 from roughly 1,363 votes. A film critics' rating of 6.1 out of 10 from 148 reviews places it somewhat below those audience scores. The credited cast numbers 24, with 106 credited crew.
What's left behind the scenes
- Military literature, diaries, and letters from soldiers were used in creating the film's script.
- After Russell Crowe finished filming in Australia, Turkish scenes began filming on February 26th in Istanbul, specifically in the vicinity of Sultanahmet (a district in the old part of Istanbul, located on the European side of the city), Cemberlitas (a district in the old part of Istanbul), and Balat (a traditional Jewish quarter in Istanbul), as well as near Topkapi Palace.
- Filming in Istanbul continued until March, and then moved to the ghost town of Kayaköy in the Aegean region of Fethiye.
- The horse that Russell Crowe rides in the scenes filmed in Australia is actually his own horse.
- Cem Yilmaz and Yilmaz Erdogan both voiced their own characters in the Turkish version of the film.
- The dog shown at the very beginning of the film is Russell Crowe's own dog. The dog had to lose weight for its role.
- Among other projects Russell Crowe considered for his directorial debut were “The Long Green Shore” about Australian soldiers fighting in the jungles of New Guinea during World War II, and “Bra Boys” – the story of the famous Sydney surfers’ gang.
- In one interview, Yılmaz Erdoğan said that during the filming of some scenes in Australia, the air temperature rose to as high as 49ºC.
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