The Water Rats captures the adventures of twelve strangers who, coming from diverse walks of life; mixed ages, ethnicity and interests, unite over the coronavirus lockdown to continue cold water swimming during and in spite of the first Lockdown in 2020.

At first, editor, director and writer Greig Coetzee and award winning photographer Jillian Edelstein had planned to write a six part TV drama - they had met in Esther Freud’s writing group - but, later, decided to make a documentary using all the material gathered, including visuals -stills, drone footage, B roll film and interviews with the members of the Water Rats group.

The group continued to swim together through the Pandemic, becoming a motley crew of outlaws visiting various wild cold waters locations around Hampstead Heath.

The film explores the power of the human connection arising from such a unique and challenging experience within the natural scenarios of some of London’s best-kept-secret natural locations.

In July 2022, The Water Rats was awarded two Impact Awards for Originality/Creativity and merit award for Feature Documentary.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Greig Coetzee and Jillian Edelstein.

Jillian Edelstein works in both portrait and documentary photography. An Honourable Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, her book Truth and Lies: Stories from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was published in 2002 and won the Kobal Book Award & the Visa D’Or in the same year. The National Portrait Gallery have collected over one hundred of her portraits. In 2018 she was Included in The Royal Photographic Society’s list of 100 International Photographic Heroines.

Greig Coetzee has over 15 years’ experience writing and editing scripts for South African television, covering both drama and comedy. More recently he has retrained as a film editor and documentary film maker. In South Africa he worked as Head Writer on four different television productions. His radio play, Banana Republic (BBC Radio 4), received a Sony Radio Academy Award in the Drama category. Greig has also enjoyed an international career as a playwright and stage actor.