With thirteen Academy Award nominations, The Shape Of Water is set against the backdrop of the Cold War era. Elisa (Sally Hawkins), is a mute, isolated woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore.
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Working alongside her is co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer), always responding to Elisa’s sign language with a torrent of words.
Elisa also has a friend in her neighbour, Giles (Richard Jenkins) but doesn’t have that truly special person in her life.
Elisa’s life changes forever when she discovers the lab’s classified secret, a mysterious scaled creature from South America that was once worshipped as a god.
Bought into the lab in a water tank by fierce government agent Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), Elisa begins to make a unique bond with the Amphibian Man (Doug Jones).
The creature is subject to the occasional torture by Strickland.
When it becomes apparent to Elisa the creature may not be long for this world, she decides she must act.
She recruits the help of her friends and also finds an ally in the facility’s scientist Dr Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg).
On Sunday, The Shape of Water picked up a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for best director Guillermo del Toro, and for original music and best production design.
See today’s paper page 7 for session details.
