The boy and The sea
Global Peace Film Festival, 2024
Santa Fe international film festival, 2024
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Marianne Østengen is a trained film and stage director with a background in Norway, the Netherlands and the USA. For a number of years, she has run Teater Impro where she has directed various theater performances, held workshops in acting for the camera, and various styles within theatre.
She has previously written and directed the short films Løshår (Metropolisfilm), Mamma, it’s far in the day (Motlys), Between the lines (Motlys), Aldri mer værdag (Viafilm) and Utsikt fra et vindu (Marianne Slot/BentHamer), supported by NFI , the Netherlands, and France. The films have been shown as previews in cinemas and a number of international film festivals, and sold to television channels at home and abroad.
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“The boy and the sea”
Marianne Østengen has made a film that confronts us with our own awareness of a growing problem with people on the run. Without either moralizing or imposing guidelines on our attitudes, the narrative draws a thin line between them and us.
The sea separates two worlds, two realities, and sometimes these literally flow into each other and whisper this very distinction; like when a child is playing carefree on the beach, where another child is washed ashore lifeless.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, stated during a press conference in Brussels (January, 2019): “In 2018, six people died every single day fleeing across the Mediterranean. That this continent with all its power, money, technology and resources allows an average of six people a day to die in the Mediterranean is dramatic! Saving lives at sea is not a choice, nor is it a matter of politics. It is an obligation as a human being.”
Marianne has made a film in which a Western family on a beach holiday in Greece experiences the nightmare of a lifetime when their little boy momentarily disappears from the beach. Through their fear, we get a brief insight into how vulnerable life can be and thus at the same time draw a parallel to life on the other side – which washes a lifeless child ashore. Everything comes unpleasantly close. The film confronts us with our own attitudes and forces us to think.
The project is supported by the Norwegian Film Institute and Viken Filmsenter.
Gaute Lid Larssen, producer/Cylinder
