When the sea disappeared

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title When the sea disappeared
Original title In My Father's Den
Country of production New Zealand
UK
original language English
Publishing year 2004
length 122 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Brad McGann
script Brad McGann
production Trevor Haysom
Dixie Linder
music Simon Boswell
camera Stuart Dryburgh
cut Chris Plummer
occupation

When the Sea Disappeared is the film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Maurice Gee . It is a 2004 UK - New Zealand co-production and directed by Brad McGann . The leading roles are played by Matthew Macfadyen , Emily Barclay , Colin Moy , Miranda Otto and Jodie Rimmer .

action

The well-known war correspondent Paul Prior returns to his hometown in New Zealand after 17 years for the funeral of his father. There he meets his brother Andrew, who meanwhile has a son named Jonathan with his wife Penny. The mother of the two brothers had committed suicide 17 years ago, whereupon Paul left town. After the funeral, Paul decides to stay in town for the time being and sort out his father's estate. In the process, he comes across a photo of a baby with the name Celia on the back . Shortly afterwards he met a 16-year-old girl named Celia, whose mother turned out to be Paul's childhood sweetheart Jackie. He becomes friends with Celia because they are both interested in literature. Paul encourages Celia to take part in a short story competition, in which Celia takes second place with the story When the Sea Disappeared . But gradually the past comes to light. When Celia learns that the man who lives with her mother is not her biological father, she turns away from Paul, disappointed; she assumes he's hiding something from her. But Paul is not sure if he is Celia's father, because 17 years ago he caught his father having sex with Jackie.

Paul gives Celia a farewell flight ticket to Spain because Celia's dream is to sit in a Spanish café, drink wine and write. He recommends that she redeem this ticket after graduation. But shortly afterwards Celia disappears without a trace and Paul is targeted by the police as the main suspect. He is innocent, however, as Celia was killed at Penny's hand in an accident at Andrew's house. He is now trying to cover up the incident. He does not succeed because his son Jonathan gets wind of the accident and alerts the police.

background

The film was shot in the film studios in Henderson , while the field shots in the greater Auckland area , Roxburgh , Alexandra and Cromwell were shot within three weeks . Filming began on September 8, 2003 and ended after eight weeks of work on October 31, 2003. The time and location of the filming were chosen so that various fruit trees were in bloom on the plantation used in order to capture film sequences that were set in winter, spring and autumn. to be able to shoot in a confined space. The budget for the film was estimated at around seven million New Zealand dollars . On June 11, 2004, the film celebrated its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival , which was followed by a screening at New Zealand's Auckland International Film Festival on July 18, 2004 as well as further screenings at various film festivals around the world. The film was first shown in New Zealand cinemas on October 7, 2004. The film ran in Australia on October 28, 2004 and was shown in Swiss cinemas from July 7, 2005. The film was shown in Germany from November 23, 2006. New Zealand grossed over 1.4 million New Zealand dollars. At the German box office, just under 45,000 viewers were counted by the end of February 2007. On May 30, 2007, As the Sea Disappeared in Germany was released for rental. On June 29, 2007 the film was released as a 2-disc special edition on DVD .

Director Brad McGann initially turned down the offer submitted by producer Trevor Haysom to film the work published 30 years earlier by Maurice Gee , because he feared the topic would not hit the nerve of the time. Six months later he decided to take over the film adaptation, but to move the plot from 1969 to the current time and to have it set in the Otago region instead of in western Auckland , as the formerly rural Auckland is now heavily populated and thus seemed unsuitable for the plot that was to continue to take place in a rural setting. According to his statement, the first versions of the script adhered too closely to the novel, so he decided to put the novel aside and write a more free adaptation as a script. Unlike in the book, the protagonist Paul has no sexual feelings towards Celia, but rather suspects that it could be his own child. Maurice Gee, the author of the novel, supported this work on the script. This part of the preproduction stretched over four years until the casting for the role of Paul Prior in London by Brad McGann and Trevor Haysom in 2002 . The decision to conduct the casting in London was based on the fact that the character to be cast had been in Europe for 17 years according to the script, so that the New Zealand accent was no longer audible. New Zealand actor Colin Moy , who was to play the role of Andrew Prior, was chosen because he bore a strong resemblance to Matthew Macfadyen who cast the role of brother Paul Prior.

Matthew Macfadyen plays the role of war correspondent Paul Prior. Most of the war photographs shown in the film are taken by the South African photojournalist Greg Marinovich , one of the photojournalists known as the Bang-Bang Club who received special media attention during apartheid . However, the photo of the child, which can be seen several times, was taken by Romano Cagnoni .

criticism

The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was “a virtuoso narrated and played, pleasantly cautiously staged psychodrama that reflected on the foil of an exciting genre film about life's lies and flight from the world” .

Jörn Schulz by Screenrush ruled the "extremely interesting" film will "of dreamlike images, an excellent narrative structure and a moving action designed" what the film but more like a "gripping thriller" let act as to a "classic family drama" to remember . The “complex story” contains a “close emotional relationship between the characters” . Brad McGann succeeds "with a narrative structure that is well worth seeing, which closely links the present and the past and seamlessly weaves flashbacks from the past into the narrative" to create a film that also has "strong, emotional images" knows how to convince. Schulz particularly emphasizes the "outdoor shots that photograph the sweeping mountain landscapes of the Central Otago region in full splendor" , which he compares with the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Anne Wotschke praises the director McGann for the deliberately slow development of the story and the layer by layer of the relationships between the characters.

The film received a rating of 7.3 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes . On the Internet Movie Database , the rating was even better with 7.7 out of 10 points.

Awards

When the Sea Disappeared won the FIPRESCI Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Youth Jury Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival . The ten New Zealand Screen Awards in 2005 included those for Best Picture , for Direction, for the Screenplay and for the performances by Matthew Macfadyen, Colin Moy, Emily Barclay and Jodie Rimmer. Emily Barclay received the British Independent Film Award in 2005 , for which Matthew Macfadyen was also nominated. The film was also nominated for numerous other awards, some of which it won.

literature

  • Capelight Pictures (Ed.): When the Sea Disappeared . 2004 ( Online (archive.org) [PDF; 183 kB ; accessed on March 30, 2018] press material).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Capelight Pictures (Ed.): When the Sea Disappeared . 2004, p.  6th f .
  2. ↑ When the Sea Disappeared - Filming Locations . IMDb , accessed on March 30, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Capelight Pictures (ed.): When the sea disappeared . 2004, p.  11 ff .
  4. ↑ a b Box office / Business for In My Father's Den (2004) . IMDb , archived from the original on December 31, 2015 ; accessed on March 30, 2018 (English, original website no longer available).
  5. ↑ When the sea disappeared - release info . IMDb , accessed on March 30, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Capelight Pictures (Ed.): When the Sea Disappeared . 2004, p.  5 .
  7. ↑ a b Capelight Pictures (ed.): When the sea disappeared . 2004, p.  8th ff .
  8. ↑ When the sea disappeared - Trivia . IMDb , accessed on March 30, 2018 .
  9. ↑ When the sea disappeared. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film Service , accessed January 31, 2008 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  10. ↑ Jörn Schulz: When the sea disappeared. In: film starts. Webedia GmbH, Berlin, accessed on March 30, 2018 (English).
  11. ↑ Anne Wotschke: When the sea disappeared. In: Fimkunstkinos Düsseldorf. Metropol Düsseldorfer Filmkunstkino GmbH, archived from the original on April 15, 2016 ; accessed on March 30, 2018 (English, original website no longer available).
  12. ↑ In my Father's Den . Rotten Tomatoes , accessed March 30, 2018 .
  13. ↑ When the sea disappeared. IMDb , accessed on March 30, 2018 .
  14. ↑ When the Sea Disappeared - Awards . IMDb , accessed on March 30, 2018 .