A laidback Mediterranean man discovers a mute mermaid while fishing and, enchanted by her otherworldliness, brings her to his backyard pool—unaware that she sacrificed her voice to be with him. As he puts her on display, seeing her as little more than a peculiar catch, she reluctantly has to accept the enormous price of her naivëte and blind desire.
-
Mija Kembre is a Lithuanian film director and concert stage director, graduate of The National Film School in Vilnius. Her works include the short fiction “Time Will Come” (2022), documentary short “Kvadratas” (2019), and “Sirena,” developed during a Werner Herzog Stiftung workshop.
Kembre’s films critically examine the complexities of our projections and exploring themes of self-imposed entrapment and the consequences of uncommunicated fantasies. In “Sirena,” she probes how individuals contribute to their own confinement through misguided devotion, challenging viewers to reconsider power dynamics in relationships.
Beyond film, Kembre directs music videos and concerts, winning Best Music Video Director at KLIPVID in 2021. She is currently developing her first feature-length fiction film.
Sirena explores the clash between the fantasies we trap ourselves in and an indifferent reality. The mermaid isn’t merely a victim—she willingly contributes to her own entrapment, as she naïvely misjudges the cost of her devotion. Meanwhile, the man of her dreams, oblivious to her sacrifice, reduces her to an object—a mere spectacle. This isn’t incidental: she surrendered her voice to be with him, yet her inability to communicate renders her so foreign that the relationship she yearns for becomes impossible.
The film’s visual style mirrors the mermaid’s confinement. Static, distant framing keeps the audience at arm’s length, reinforcing her isolation, while characters linger in the corners, emphasizing the imbalance of power and the disconnect between their desires. Despite this, Sirena is strikingly beautiful, bathed in the vibrant hues of the Mediterranean. The sunlit aesthetic starkly contrasts with the unsettling dynamics at play.
This duality—being both an object of adoration and a participant in her own entrapment—serves as a metaphor for a broader human tendency. We unconsciously impose our fantasies onto others, often needlessly paying a steep price when people do not bend to the will of our projections and uncommunicated desires.