Purple Sea

by Khaled Abdulwahed, Amel Alzakout
  • 2020 pong film GmbH
  • 2020 pong film GmbH
  • 2020 pong film GmbH
  • 2020 pong film GmbH
  • 2020 pong film GmbH
  • 2020 pong film GmbH

    Synopsis

    “I see everything,” she says, as if it was a curse. Brilliant sunshine, clear blue skies. The sea is calm, framed by a piece of railing. Buzzing voices. A peaceful moment if it weren’t for the fact that the sea is standing upright, vertical, like a waterfall. A rush of images, twirling, upside down, jolting. People in the boat, in the water, screams, life jackets, emergency whistles. Fluorescent orange, geometrical shapes cast by the sun.
    There’s no horizon any more, no sky, no up or down, only deepness and nothing to hold on to. Even Eme’s flow comes to a halt, contracting into the brutal present. She is filming and speaking. To him, to herself, to us, perhaps. Floating legs in sweat pants, jeans, thronged together. A blouse with butterflies, it looks like their wings are flapping in the water. The snake-like belt of a coat, a crumpled-up plastic cup, a pack of cigarettes. Fuck you all! She speaks, she rages, and she films to beat being tired, being cold, the fact that help isn’t coming. To beat dying, just for something to remain.

    Festivals

    2020
    70 Berlinale FORUM EXPANDED
    51 Visions du Réel 'online edition'
    17 dokumentarfilmwoche hamburg -
    FFHH20 - Filmfest Hamburg
    IDFA — Paradocs
    doclisboa

    2021
    nominated for GRIMME Prize
    nominated for VFF Documentary Film Production Award — 36 DOK.fest Munich