Russell Crowe stars in and directors the movie.

The screen play was written by Andrew Anastasios

and Andrew Knight. The film is loosely based on the book of the same name written by Andrew
Anastasios and Dr Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios.
 
 
Retreat from Gallipoli
 
1. The opening scene is a classic example of showing a different perspective. Australian
culture would have us understand this battle from the perspective of our trench, our battle front,
rather than from the Turkish perspective. In this scene, explore what
a. Connects with your existing cultural assumptions of this battle,
b. Extends (adds to) your understanding, and
c. Challenges your acquired perspective.
 

 
2. What is significant about Major Hasan's reaction to the drip-rifles and chess board?
 
3. Why did the Turkish general send the boy to retrieve his binoculars when he already had
them? What message is conveyed in that gesture?
 
 
Characterisation of Connor
 
1. In the opening minutes of the Australian scenes, what is conveyed of the land and Connor's
place in it? Explain by employing your knowledge of camera techniques.
 It’s seen as being very deserted and empty. He is so small compared to his land scape. This is shown
through a birds eye perspective.
2. The act of 'divining' for water demonstrates many aspects of Connor's character. From the
beginning of the process to the end, what is shown of his character in his precise ability to find
and reveal the water?
His knowing of his environment and can be seen as trying to find water as always having hope in
laugh that something good will happen.
3. Writing on demand: Writing an extended PEAL paragraph, referring to the scenes where
Connor and his wife are together, what is 'progressive' about this depiction of what it is to be a
man.
 
Consider: Notes:
His reactions to Eliza's delusional  Weren’t here for any of these scenes.
denial
His reaction to her calls to read  
despite his weariness
Her accusations  
His reaction to her death  
His actions at her funeral  
His pledge to her  
 
 
War Graves tension
 
 1. What is the nature of the old tensions which exist in this scene where the British, Turks and
Australians share a new common purpose in burying their dead?
It’s seen as being respectful to the families and even if they were enemies in the past they’re
passive to each other know since they understand that they are all trying to achieve the same
thing. It’s said it brings peace to the families to bury their dead.
 
The firestorm and intertextuality
 
Intertextuality is an aesthetic feature where one text sits within the body of another. The
embedded text offers symbolic extended meaning to the surrounding text. In The Water
Diviner, the Middle Eastern collection of stories called The Arabian Nights was a favourite for
Connor and his three sons. Britannica (2020) describes The Arabian Nights as a "collection of
stories… of uncertain date and authorship… [featuring] the tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and
Sindbad the Sailor which have almost become part of Western folklore, though these were
added to the collection only in the 18th century in European adaptations".
 
Crocker (2001) speaks of the popular associations of genii and magic carpets with The Arabian
Nights but, actually, there is only one mention of a magic carpet. He says that the magic carpet
has become synonymous with the "greatest method of escape". The below excerpt, loosely
read by Connor to his absent sons, comes from the story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Pari
Banou:

"After Prince Houssain had run through that division, street by street, his thoughts fully
employed on the riches he had seen, he was very much tired; which a merchant perceiving,
civilly invited him to sit down in his shop, and he accepted of it; but had not been sat down
long, before he saw a crier pass by with a piece of tapestry on his arm, about six foot square,
and cried it at thirty purses. The prince called to the crier, and asked him to see the tapestry,
which seemed to him to be valued at an exorbitant price, not only for the size of it, but for the
meanness of the stuff. When he had examined it well, he told the crier, that he could not
comprehend how so small a piece of tapestry, and of so indifferent appearance, could be set at
so high a price. The crier, who took him for a merchant, replied, If this price seems so
extravagant to you, your amazement will be greater, when I tell you I have orders to raise it to
forty purses, and not to part with it under. Certainly, answered Prince Houssain, it must have
something very extraordinary in it, which I know nothing of. You have guessed it, sir, replied
the crier, and will own it, when you come to know, that whoever sits on this piece of tapestry
may be transported in an instant where-ever he desires to be, without being stopped by any
obstacle."
 
1. Armed with what the original text says, why has this tale been introduced and particularly
employed during the firestorm?
Don’t understand. 
2. What values and attitudes are endorsed in this scene?
That something that seems it has no high value can be set at such a high price, since of the
unknowing of the power it withholds. 
 
Istanbul
 
1. The cinematic technique of having someone or something 'run' through the streets offers the
viewer a sweeping impression of the place. This technique is also used in The Kite Runner (a
studied text in Year 12) with the kite guiding the eye. Considering both what is heard and seen,
what impression is intended?
The impression that is intended is to follow where he is going and that he is trying to escape
something that is constantly behind him chasing him. It shows persistent act of trying to get
away from the attacker.
 2. How is the 'call to prayer' and his later accidental visit to the Blue Mosque ironic compared
against Connor's exchange with the Australian reverend?
 
3. "I can find them".
"They should be buried at home beside their mother".
"This is the first war where anyone has given a damn [about how the dead were buried]".
 
For whom and why does he persist? What values and attitudes are revealed in his persistence?
 He’s talking about his sons because at that moment he thought all were dead and that he
wanted to find peace in bringing them home and burying them back in Australia since he
promised his wife he would do so before she died. This shows he is an honest man who wants
to stick to his word and is persistent to any extent to do whatever that is right.

4. What depictions of hegemonic masculinity are shown particularly with regards to men's
power over women at this time in Turkey?Give examples for your impression.
It’s seen as if the women even attempts to hit the man first he can unleash whatever violence he
wants to any extent onto her and that she will understand that it is the normality of it. This is the
understanding of the culture in Turkey that men have a certain dominance over the women that
they have then made them believe this.
5. "I was an architect." "I was a civil engineer."
"You bring him home".
 
What is conveyed in these exchanges between former enemies?
 That they understand their backgrounds now and that enemies in the past does not mean that
they will be enemies in the present time.
6. Of Lt Colonel Hughes and Mayor Hasan, who is more compassionate and why? In the
growing trust between Hasan and Connor, what message is invited?
 I think Hasan since he is more motivated to find Connors Sons. The message that is invited is that
enemies the past can be friends in the present or future, since the understanding comes from neither of
them wanted to fight however were forced to by their countries and that they had no personal issue
with each other however their countries did.
8. War has long been used as a marker of masculinity, a sphere traditionally only for men, and
particularly those of strength, endurance and courage. Correspondence from war has
traditionally told narrow stories, of the victories and 'glories' while silencing the evidence of
savagery, fear and pain. Those telling the stories were mindful that recruiting was still ongoing
so revealing truths about the carnage of war was counter-productive to enlisting evermore men
to fight. How does the fight and the wounding of the young men counter traditional perceptions
of war?
 It counters traditional perceptions of war since young men were normally seen that they were going
to die first and that they would go to war defeat the bad guys and be able to retreat home which was
the complete opposite since a lot were deemed as being sent on a suicide mission of torture and
viciousness.
9. Throughout the film, at such times as when Connor opens his son's diary or when he walks
upon the ground where they fell, flashbacks occur. What is implied with his later explanation
of "you have to feel it" and what implications (normally reserved for women and their young)
are suggested about men and their children?
 
10. What accusations and realities are presented with regards to 'executions' and war blame?
What does this reveal about the commonality of war and the stories told afterwards? Of the
reactions of revenge versus forgiveness, which is endorsed and how?
 
11. What is revealed of Connor in his exchanges with Ayshe and Orhan?
 
 12. The motif of sitting on a carpet is revisited in the below image and again when Connor gives
the book to the boy? What is suggested in both of these instances?
 

13. In Connor and Omer, Ayshe has two suitors. What manner of courtship is endorsed and
critiqued respectively? By extension, what sort of man is said to win the love of a woman?
 
14. What sort of man doesn't deserve to have a son, according to Ayshe?
 
15. What is shown of the Turk's sense of masculinity?
 
16. What gives the impression of Ayshe has taken her courtship into her own hands, contrary to
the norms of the time? What type of role for women is endorsed here in her example?
 
17. Glimpses of a 'whirling dervish' has been sprinkled across the film and at 1.18.00 a young
man is revealed behind the linen and arms. Sensal (2021) and Spiritual Life (2020) describe the
practice as such:
 
"enduring as well as the most exquisite ceremonies of spirituality. The ritual whirling of the
dervishes is an act of love and a drama of faith. It possesses a highly structured form within
which the gentle turns become increasingly dynamic as the individual dervishes strive to
achieve a state of [transcendence or going beyond the material world. It] induces a feeling of
soaring, of ecstasy, of mystical flight…
 
[For some it achieves] the cleansing of the carnal self, the refinement of heart, and the
purification of spirit and its acquiring transcendence".
 
How does this imagery and its associated beliefs sit with the existing structure of ideas,
symbols, and plot of The Water Diviner?
 
 

 
 18. In addition to his progressive tendency to feel his way through the world, what more
traditional elements of make up this man's identity?
 
19. The guilt of not being able to protect others haunts both Connor and Art. What great guilt
does Art hold which had prevented him from returning home after the war?
 
20. With the application of the carpet motif, however, how are we positioned to regard his
actions: something to feel guilty about or something else?
 
21. How does the motif of water return to provide cohesion to the plot?
 
22. As denoted by his change in coat colour, what does the returning to the hotel do that truly
completes Connor's journey?