They are very happy, the young family with whom Sea of time opens, that’sfor sure. There are coarse-grained home video images of the laughing coupleJohanna and Lucas (Sallie Harmsen and Reinout Scholten van Aschat) and theircheerful angelic son Kai. And we see them sailing across the Atlantic, bathedin the sun, surrounded by glistening water. Lucas emphasizes it again as thethree of them lie together on the deck as the sun sets: “And now press pauseand then this forever.” But then it turns out that five-year-old Kai hasdisappeared in the middle of the sea.
The 42nd edition of the Dutch Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday eveningwith Sea of time. It is one of 88 feature films, documentaries and shortfilms that will premiere in Utrecht in the next ten days. The festive openingevening will again take place this year in the Stadsschouwburg, after theKinepolis Jaarbeurs was twice diverted due to corona measures.
Death and mourning
The subject of Sea of time , coping with the death of a child, sets thetone for the four long fiction premieres at the festival. Death and mourningare also central to the dramas narcosis , bo and femi. “You have to goto the short films this year for cheerfulness,” said programmer Claire vanDaal.
Out of four treats Sea of time , loosely based on a true story, thesubject being the most straightforward. Shortly after the idyllic openingmoments, Flashforwards look ahead to a prickly meeting between the coupleforty years later. But the first part of the film is set in the early eightiesand is mainly about how their relationship cracks in the period immediatelyafter their immense loss.
They are well-acted, but sometimes somewhat perfunctory and literal scenesthat depict various stages of mourning. There is denial: once back in theNetherlands, Johanna regularly thinks she sees Kai and wanders along the coastof Zeeland at night. There is apathy, portrayed with staring at swirling fluffon which the sunlight reflects. And there’s anger: like when Lucas seesanother father with child and rambles on with a hammer during his job indemolition. What doesn’t help is that the music tells the viewer what to feel.
Only in the second part do the characters seem to become more flesh and blood.Is it possible that the main characters in that part are closer to directorTheu Boermans (1950) himself? Forty years after the fatal sailing trip, Lucas,now played by Gijs Scholten van Aschat, turns out to be a successful theaterdirector. He is working on a farewell performance full of dance, a tribute tohis son who died young.
Boermans himself was artistic director of De Theatercompagnie and HetNationale Toneel for many years and has directed dozens of major (repertoire)performances. He is also the man behind major productions like Soldier ofOrange. As a film and TV director he made Golden Calf winners 1000 Rosen(1994) and series The Partisans (1995). Eleven years later he directed TVdrama The chosen one.
A little more freedom
Johanna (Elsie de Brauw) has also continued with her life in the film, but ina completely different way. Gijs Scholten van Aschat and De Brauw seem to get(or take) a little more freedom with the material. There are occasionalhesitations in conversations, emotions feel a little less like an illustrationand more like a spontaneous reaction.
And while the first part, despite the violent events, could sometimes havebeen shorter, in the second part it is almost a shame that the conflict thatarises between the former couple is not worked out a little deeper and longer.She doesn’t want painful memories to be publicly stirred up.
The makers choose to bring lightness to the story thanks to a twist halfwaythrough the film. In the end it produces a crowd-friendly, well-acted andemotionally chopping, but little groundbreaking opening. For the latter youhave to be at other mourning dramas in Utrecht this year.