The Water DivinerUA

PLOT SUMMARY

The Water Diviner is set in 1919, right after the conslucion of the Great War. Joshua Connor lives in an Australian farm and is also blessed with the ability to locate water in often arid areas. His wife Eliza gives him a lot of grief about the fact that their three sons Art (Ryan Corr), Edward (James Fraser) and Henry (Ben O'Toole) left to fight in the war as part of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) forces during the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey and the Dardanelles five years prior. They had not returned and are missing presumed dead. Eliza becomes mentally affected by the sense of loss and loses all hope in her husband being able to “bring them back”. She is shown to be a religious woman and goes to church every Sunday, but commits suicide one day. Joshua, already burdened with the awareness of his missing sons, now is deal another blow by the loss of his life. In his own words, he finds that he has nothing left to live for. Eliza’s last wish was for him to bring back their bones so that they can be interred on sacred ground, next to their mother’s grave.

He heads to Turkey by ship (these were the days before long distance air travel) and is led by a boy (more like the boy steals his bag and leads Joshua to his mother’s hotel) to the place managed by Ayshe. She at first refuses him a room when he tells her that he is Australian but her brother-in-law (who also intends to marry her in the aftermath of her husband’s death in the war) tells her that they need the business.
Joshua then contacts a high ranking British military officer in Istanbul and he is informed that Gallipoli is a no-go for anyone who is not military personnel. While this is happening though, Ayshe becomes friendlier with Joshua when she realises that he has lost his wife and sons and is searching for the remains of the latter. She advises him to bribe a fisherman from a local village and that will allow him to make his way to Gallipoli.

Joshua makes the trip according to her advice and reaches Gallipoli. Over there, he is met with other forms of opposition. The ANZAC are busy cataloguing and giving their dead a proper burial. Civilians are forbidden from entering this area. However Major Hasan tells Lt-Col Cyril Hughes that he should to allow Connor to stay and look for his sons, since he is the only father who has come back to look for them.
We then find out via a series of flashbacks that the three teenagers were killed together. Later on in the movie, when Joshua finds Art alive, he tells Joshua that he was hit by shrapnel from an exploding shell and falls, with his leg injured. His two brothers rushed out to help him and fire at Turkish lines. Both of them were mowed down with multiple bullets by a Lewis machine gun. One is killed with his face also shot off while the other is mortally wounded with his abdomen ripped open. One of the ANZAC men tell Joshua that the Turks shot his kids in the head, but in actuality, Art put an end to his suffering brother’s life at the latter’s final request.

Joshua, now on the old battlefield, reminisces about his sons. The men find two sets of remains bearing the dog tags of the two boys. A third set of remains is not found. After Joshua assaults Major Hasan for allegedly ordering the execution of survivors, they are separated. But Hasan goes to Joshua’s tent and tells him about an old Turkish saying that it is the worst thing for a parent to live beyond their children. Joshua apologizes and Hasan hands him a slip of paper with the Connor surname, clear evidence that Art was taken prisoner.

Connor heads to Ayshe's hotel where she is celebrating her son, Orhan's ritual circumcision. Sometime later, Connor pushes away Ayshe's brother-in-law when the latter hits her. He does not know that she had hit him first after they had an argument. With his self-respect outraged, he sets on Joshua with three other men in the street outside the hotel but is saved by Sergeant Jemal (Yılmaz) who then takes Connor to Major Hasan.

Jemal and Hasan explain to Joshua that the Greeks have invaded and the Turks are going to war to defend their country. They appeal to the British for help but the British, as diplomatic as ever, hedge about it and don’t want to get involved. Joshua meanwhile is galvanised into action in the hope that his third son might still be alive. Joshua escapes from the hotel just as the British come to get him loaded on a boat back to Australia. He escapes thanks to Ayshe giving him a route by the roof and joins the Turks, who are going to fight the Greeks.

The train is ambushed by Greeks and in the fight, Jemal is killed. Joshua however manages to rescue Hasah, who is about to be shot and executed. The two then become close friends and decide to ride together after sharing a fifth of Greek ouzo. In a Turkish village, Joshua sees a water well that looks like something Art might have built as he was taught so many years ago by their father. He heads to a stone room and finds his son Art, alive. Art is alive but because of the sum total of his past wartime experiences he is both dazed and confused.

It is during this meeting that Art tells his dad what really happened on the battlefield (euthanizing his brother etc). Even as he finishes recounting the tale, the Greeks are overrunning the town Art shows his father an escape route in the form of a trap door leading into a river. Art initially doesn’t want to go but when Joshua tells him that they can either go together or die in this town, Art relents. They escape the Greek army and return to Ayshe's hotel. The film concludes with Art finding love with of of the girls in the hotel and Ayshe making some very sweet coffee for Joshua that signifies that she loves him and is ready to start life anew with him.