_{Sea Sparkle by Domien Huyghe}

For Belgian producer Dries Phlypo (A Private View) and Dutch co-producer Marleen Slot (Viking Film), Sea Sparkle marks their 12th collaboration since they met as fledgling producers back in 2004. For both producers, this film has a particular resonance.

The project concerns a fatal accident at sea, off the coast of Ostend, and the different ways that members of a family deal with their grief, among them is the adolescent Lena who imagines that a yet undiscovered giant predator may have been responsible.

The project concerns a fatal accident at sea, off the coast of Ostend, and the different ways that members of a family deal with their grief, among them is the adolescent Lena who imagines that a yet undiscovered giant predator may have been responsible.

His interest piqued, main producer Phlypo turned to his long-time collaborator Marleen Slot (who has a second film at Berlinale 2023, Sacha Polak’s Silver Haze* in Panorama). Slot grew up in a Dutch fishing community and therefore knows more than most the perils of the open sea.

“My father is a fisherman and so is my 26-year-old brother. A few years ago, my brother had a horrible accident and was swept overboard. He was found after three hours in the North Sea. It's kind of a miracle that he's still alive,” she says. “So I understand the danger of the sea very much and the toughness of this job. That’s why I was really happy to be part of this film, because it's so personal to me as well.”

In the film the adolescent Lena refuses to believe that her father, played by Flemish actor Valentijn Dhaenens, could be in any way responsible for the accident. In early very touching scenes we see the strength of the father/daughter bond as they play and laugh together. Her brother Jules responds to his emotions in street verse/rap while their mother just tries to keep the family, and herself, together. Lena meanwhile enlists the aid of her best friend Kezimer and Vinnie (aka Octopus Boy, so called as he must wear an octopus costume to promote the local aquarium, where he works part-time) to solve the mystery of the sea monster. Little by little, each family member finds their own path towards emotional resolution.

“The moment I met director Domien and his sister Wendy, they told me they wanted to make a film about grief and about the fact that, for everyone, grieving is different,” explains producer Phlypo. “Everyone relates to it very differently. There's not one person who has the same process of grieving. So you need to accept that, in order to be able to relate to it afterwards. They [the Huyghe siblings] and their family, when their father died, weren't able to communicate about it. No-one was saying anything. They all kept silent, and they were all dealing with it on their own.”

“If it's possible and you are able to actually talk about it, it's so much more helpful,” Phlypo adds.

Slot agrees, while highlighting a necessary sense of equilibrium the makers were looking to find in the film. “I think the most complicated thing was to find the right balance between not making it too sad and making it adventurous. I think when you see the film now, I'm really happy with that balance because it's not only an adventure film, it's really something that touches you deeply. I think that that is so well done. And it is really something that already came out of the whole script development process.”

Phlypo adds that the project was further developed at the Berlinale Co-production Market, pointing out that it is rare that a film aimed at an ostensibly younger audience is invited to that particular showcase. He says how the Co-pro Market’s enthusiasm for the project made him and his team realise that “the film we are telling really needs to be told,” and that they were working on “something really special.” That said, Phlypo rejects the notion of Sea Sparkle as a film for kids. This is a film for all audiences, he underlines.

As is the case with so many films that are introducing new talent to audiences, everything stands or falls on the quality of the casting. In the case of Sea Sparkle, the majority of onscreen attention is given to Lena, played by newcomer Saar Rogiers. Cutting to the chase (to deploy a well-worn film term), Rogiers is quite astonishing and delivers a performance with levels of sensitivity, authority and pathos that belie her 13 years.

Phlypo tells how Rogiers was discovered during a street casting session in Belgium. “I think we invited around 100 girls and I got a text message from director Domien after he saw the third girl saying, ‘I think I found her.’ I said, 'there are 97 other candidates, let's just see them.’ But when she came into the room Domien straight away saw the potential she had. She was so natural. She had never done a film before, nor had ever acted before, but she really understood the story and what the script was about.”

The young Rogiers also had to learn how to sail, skate and dive. “There's only one scene where there was a stunt double. All the rest she did herself,” says Phlypo.

What’s more, she established a totally believable on-screen bond with her father. Co-producer Slot adds. “I think that's so well done, that you really feel that they are related. Domien had so little scenes to set that up, but they totally pulled it off. That is the great talent of both Domien as a director and Saar being a marvellous actress.”

Sea Sparkle is produced by A Private View (BE) in co-production with Viking Film (NL). LevelK are handling sales. It received support from the Netherlands Film Fund and Netherlands Film Production Incentive.
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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Film Production Incentive.