The Shape of Water

A closer look at the story

In Cold War America, Elisa Esposito is a mute and lonely woman. She works as a cleaner in a secret, heavily guarded government laboratory, and her days pass quietly, each much like the last. One day, together with her colleague Zelda, she becomes aware of a classified "experiment" kept at the facility: a captive amphibious man. A bond that needs no words grows between Elisa and this mysterious being, and she devises a daring plan to help him escape. Directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, the 123-minute 2017 film stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer in a fairy-tale love story.