There were no physical screenings in Berlin this winter, when Robin Petré's 'From the Wild Sea' competed in the Generation 14plus line-up. Now, the film is headed to the second part of this year's festival, which will take place in the cinemas of Berlin in June.
The film is nominated as one of 16 films for the annual Berlinale Documentary Award, handpicked by the festival's artistic director, Carlo Chatrian. The winner is announced as part of the official award ceremony in Berlin on 13 June.
'From the Wild Sea' follows a number of marine animal rescue facilities in Europe as they fight a relentless battle to save marine life from manmade death. Utilizing an observing and poetic style, the director depicts everyday life at the rescue facilities. Good-willed marine animal rescue volunteers work tirelessly to save stranded whales and injured seals, as climate change fuels increasingly violent weather across the seas.
"I believe that in every human being there is both a constructive and destructive force. This ambivalence is at the core of what we aim to explore in the film. Our faltering relationship to nature, which we destroy with one hand and rebuild with the other," says Petré in our interview.
Petré graduated as a director from the European film school DocNomads in 2015. Her short documentary 'Pulse' from 2016, also about humans' troubled co-existence with nature, won the Silver Dove for an Outstanding Artistic Contribution at DOK Leipzig. 'From the Wild Sea' is her feature-length debut.
Since its world premiere earlier this year, 'From the Wild Sea' has screened at festivals such as CPH:DOX, Sheffield and Thessaloniki. The film is produced by Malene Flindt Pedersen for Hansen & Pedersen with support from the Danish Film Institute's talent scheme New Danish Screen. DR is handling international sales.
The summer edition of the Berlinale takes place 9-20 June.
