This is kind of an odd duck, not quite so easily categorized, which left me wondering as to the creative motivations behind it and the niche it was intended to occupy. Even at a 47 minutes runtime it would still technically qualify as a "short"; short *features* going far back in film history generally clocked in at 60 minutes or more. There is no clear general drift from looking over the diverse list of the director's prior credits. This is nominally a German production, although the spoken dialog is in English. If you subtracted the graphic sex content, the setup is slightly reminiscent of a recommended feature, "2 Nights Till Morning" (2015), except that in this case there is no language barrier between the characters.
When I say 'niche', you would -- for example -- have the comedically inclined erotics such as Ken Russell's surprising "The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch", part of a multi-famous-director collection of such shorts. But "Landlocked" is not at all like that, nor is it some (often feminist) art-porn like Erika Lust's "Impregnation Nation" (2020) , and also not simply made along the lines of your familiar, conventional porn. There is some serious sketching out of character and situation, of two very disparate people forging a real connection, under constrained circumstances -- though not quite enough of that to elevate this piece to real drama. The running time probably would not allow for that, once the decision was made to devote so much of it to the graphic sex interactions, which build into the second half. That said, the viewer does come to care about these people, and there is no less than a 50-50 divide between the sex and what looks like real passion and emotion. Not as cinema verite, but still like a relationship and encounters that could occur in the real world. And that is not characteristic of standard porn, which has a very different vibe and different objectives. "Landlocked" is also shot in a more tasteful and skillfully artistic manner.
So, where does that leave things, in terms of reaching for an applicable category ? My best guess for now might be a more free, non-prudish, couples viewing one, such as with the adult fare porn actress turned director Ovidie has long been making for cable in France. And I'm now curious to see some of the other and apparently rather different work of Livia Cheibub.
