Direkt zum Hauptbereich

The Last Days



A review to Last Days At Sea
Sound of the sea and impressive nature shots. Many off-screen conversations, painted by other images. In Last Days At Sea, we join director and cinematographer Venice Atienza as the young Reyboy spends his last days at sea in his isolated village before moving to the city for secondary school. From the beginning, there is a feeling of family and comfort. The villagers welcome Venice openly and warmly, so that the audience also quickly feels at home.

It is not the plot that is convincing in this film, but the observing. A feeling of summer and lightness arises. For a little over an hour, we escape from everyday city life and end up by the sea. Digging our feet into the sand, going for a swim, basking in the sun, eating Filipino cuisine and feeling the love and respect of our fellow human beings.

But it is not an easy life to depend on fishing, this is also made clear. The seas are almost emptied by commercial fishing and the fishermen have to go further and further out to sea at night, to return with only two fish. Sometimes they don't return at all. To escape this life, the children are sent far away to study.

But although they are heading for a supposedly better life, the question arises as to how much better they will actually have it. From Reyboy's stories, it is clear that many children hardly ever return to the village. Instead, they are constantly among people for whom sharing is not a matter of course. Reyboy himself is astonished when Venice tells him how different life is in the city.

Last Days At Sea tells of partings and new beginnings. About life in nature. Of the friendship between a young woman and a child who could have been siblings. The bond between the two can be felt until the last second, when they leave the island together and go their separate ways.

As the credits roll, I am unexpectedly touched. It is the last film of this year's Berlinale marathon for me and so I perceive the farewell that accompanies the film in a completely different way. It's the perfect finale for the online festival.
09.06.2021, Johanna Gosten

© Photo: Venice Atienza

Kommentare

Kommentar veröffentlichen

Beliebte Posts aus diesem Blog

Shit happens!

A comment on Ninjababy 23-year-old Rakel has a pretty normal life - she likes to party and enjoys the carefree lifestyle of a twentysomething. Until suddenly, out of nowhere, she finds out about being pregnant already in the 7th month. From one second to the other Rakel's life is turned upside down - instead of wondering what to eat today, where to party or what she wants to do with her life after dropping out of university, Rakel suddenly has to deal with finding the father and what to do after an unwanted pregnancy. Luckily, Rakel's roommate Ingrid and the aikido instructor Mos, who the two mistook for the father at first, support her on this emotional ride. Pregnancies of young people is definitely not a new topic in generation films. "Ninjababy", however, handles to find the perfect balance between comedy, complexity and emotions. By Rakel's imagination, the unborn child comes to life as a small comic character which Rakel draws and comments everything Rakel d...
Kommentar veröffentlichen
Mehr anzeigen

Für 122 Minuten Teenager sein

"Fühlst du dich noch verbunden zu dem, was du gefühlt hast, also du so alt warst wie ich? Liegt das alles in der Vergangenheit oder kannst du diese Erlebnisse irgendwie wieder erleben?"   Nach „Shkola nomer 3“ (2017) und „The earth is blue as an orange“ (2020) präsentiert Generation 14+ mit „Stop Zemlia“ auch bei der diesjährigen Berlinale einen Jugendfilm aus der Ukraine. Für ihren einfühlsamen Film erhält Regisseurin Kateryna Gornostai den gläsernen Bären der Jugendjury.  Eine Schule irgendwo in Kiew. In Sequenzen unterschiedlicher Länge folgt die Kamera Schüler*innen aus der 11. Klasse und lädt die Zuschauer*innen dazu ein, am Gefühlsleben der ukrainischen Teenager teilzuhaben: Am ersten Verliebtsein, an Klassenfeiern, Schulstunden, Freundschaftsritualen, Ängsten und Selbstzweifeln. Durch unkonventionelles Storytelling und einer subtilen Erzählweise wird über 122 Minuten Spannung gehalten, ohne dass viel passiert. Genau dies spiegelt im Grunde die Lebensrealität vieler Tee...
Kommentar veröffentlichen
Mehr anzeigen

“Once you leave you can never go back to who you were as a child” - Im Gespräch mit der Regisseurin Venice Atienza von “Last Days At Sea”

Am Mittwochvormittag durfte ich mit der philippinischen Regisseurin Venice Atienza über Zoom sprechen, deren Dokumentarfilm “Last Days at Sea” im diesjährigen Berlinaleprogramm gezeigt wird. Es entspann sich ein inspirierendes Gespräch über ihre empatische Art, Filme zu drehen und was es heißt, sich auf der Leinwand als Regisseurin vulnerabel zu zeigen. fGR: Would you like to introduce yourself shortly? My name is Venice Atienza. I initially studied cinema, but before that I actually wanted to be a chef. One day, when I was 16 or 17 years old, I was watching a Korean drama and I asked my mother: “What job makes people feel things?” and she replied by asking me “Why don’t you become a film maker?”. After applying for the second time I finally got into film school. I really always knew I wanted to make documentaries but did not know how. A friend of mine then told me about the project Doc Nomads which I got accepted at. That was the first time I saw a bit more experimental documenta...
Kommentar veröffentlichen
Mehr anzeigen