Logline A determined adolescent from a coastal town must face ten ruthless challengers in a clandestine ring beneath the breakwater; as each confrontation escalates, water — tidal surges, slick seaweed, and the boy’s own fluid, improvisational fighting style (“water wiggles”) — becomes both obstacle and ally, shaping a coming-of-age battle for honor and survival.
Marek enters not for fame but to reclaim the debt that shackles his family. His style — an instinctive, undisciplined motion he calls “water wiggles” — blends evasive footwork, hip-swaying feints, and sudden spins learned from dodging waves and hauling nets. As Marek advances through the rounds, each opponent tests a different facet of his technique: raw power, grappling, reach, and psychological manipulation. The fights are choreographed to read as a ballet of splashing saltwater and shifting footing; the sea itself plays a character, its tides altering the ring, washing away marks, and forcing the fighters to adapt.
Synopsis Set against the brooding northern shoreline of Azov Bay, Ten Tides follows 15-year-old Marek, a wiry, resourceful kid raised among fishermen and shipwrights. When his older brother disappears after gambling away the family’s boat, Marek is forced into the shadow circuit of fights run by a charismatic but brutal promoter who stages bouts on the exposed breakwater at dawn. The promoter’s marquee spectacle is the “Decem” — a gauntlet in which one fighter must face ten successive opponents.