Seals, whales and dolphins play the lead roles in Robin Petré's documentary 'From the Wild Sea', selected for this year's edition of the Berlin Film Festival. The film will be competing for a Grand Prix and the Crystal Bear for best film in the competition for youth films, Generation 14plus.
The winner of the Grand Prix, chosen by the international jury, will be announced during the first part of the Berlin Film Festival, which runs from 1 to 5 March as an online event for the industry only.
The youth jury, which selects the recipient of the Crystal Bear, will reveal the winner during the second part of the festival, to be held as a physical event this summer.
Filmed in England, Ireland and the Netherlands, 'From the Wild Sea' is about man's complex encounter with nature.
Along the raw and windy coastline of England, a wide network of volunteers are constantly ready to rescue coastal wildlife from oil, plastic and storms. But the animals struggle against their human surroundings, and the well-meaning volunteers find themselves powerless as they watch the winter storms intensifying and the conditions for the animals worsening. The film takes us on a disturbing journey into the emerging Anthropocene Era in which humans are frantically trying to save nature from decay.
The film is Robin Petré's first long documentary as a director and photographer. She holds an MA in Documentary Film Directing from Doc Nomads, the European traveling film school spanning Portugal, Hungary and Belgium. Her creative documentary short film 'Pulse' (2016), filmed at one of Europe’s largest deer farms in Hungary, won the Silver Dove for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at DOK Leipzig, among other awards.
'From the Wild Sea' 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.
Also selected for the the Berlinale 2021 is Ronny Trocker's German-Italian-Danish 'Human Factors', screening in Panorama. The psychological family portrait world premieried in the international competition at Sundance.
Created 8 February, updated with information on Panorama 11 February 2021.
