The 27 residents on the tiny Danish Wadden Sea island of Mandø are used to severe weather and flooding. Climate change has only made things worse and now it poses a serious existential threat to the eight-square-kilometer island. However, its last farmer, Gregers, whose family has lived there for eight generations, hasn’t given up in the face of the impending catastrophe. He refuses to build a life elsewhere and instead hopes to find a wife to manage the farm with him. The portrait of this microcosm is accompanied by masterfully crafted shots of the distinctive landscape, shifting skies, and seas that change with the wind and tide. In a sense, the grim fate of these islanders, presented in daily humorous situations, affects us all.
Denmark 2023, '89
DIRECTOR: Juan Palacios, suredateljica/co-director Sofie Husum Johannesen
SCENARIO: Juan Palacios
CAMERA: Juan Palacios
MONTAGE: Nicolas Nørgaard Staffolani
MUSIC: Morten Svenstrup
PRODUCERS: Kasper Lykke Schultz
FESTIVALS & AWARDS:
IDFA (2023)
Gothenburg FF (2024 )
DocPoint (2024)
True/False FF (2024)
Juan Palacios
Juan Palacios is a Basque filmmaker and an artistic researcher with a background in Environmental Studies and an MA in Film from the Netherlands Film Academy. With a particular interest in the boundaries between human culture and the non-human, mysticism and materialism, he employs imagery from a natural world to create an alternative universe. His first feature documentary film, Pedaló (2016), was awarded at San Sebastian International Film Festival in 2016. His second feature film, Meseta (2019), a sensorial trip through the empty landscape of Spain, won several international awards.