Creative producer Sien Versteyhe is happy to admit that she has no idea where her RE>CONNEXT project Louise-Marie is going to shoot, other than on a boat on the high seas. As it is a Belgian Navy boat (the film is eponymously titled), its location will be a closely guarded secret, and as the use of mobile phones is severely restricted on the military vessel, she will have limited contact with the 4-person crew, headed up by director Daphne van den Blink.
The documentary will seek to find out what it is like for a young sailor, a new recruit, trapped on a ship, miles from home, and confronted not only with the vagaries of a potentially cruel sea but also the challenges posed by a new life within a highly structured naval community. One way to survive the ordeal (the main character is yet to be cast) is to rely upon his/her daydreams and the intensely personal conversations they will have with a moral counsellor on board. “Louise-Marie poetically and imaginatively shows how a young sailor deals with this crucial moment in his [or her] life,” reads the project’s log-line.
“Daphne is very enthusiastic and young,” says Versteyhe (Lionheart Productions). “And her heart is in the Navy, in the Marines, because her dad was there for a very long time. She’s also very patient, and I think she will really need patience to be on the ship there with her character.”
In her notes, Van den Blink explains the significance of her father to the production. “For my latest short film, the children’s documentary Dad Magnet, I delved into my father’s working environment. My father was a humanist spiritual counsellor in the army. While shooting Dad Magnet, I found out more about the formation of young sailors in the Navy,” she explains of why her father’s counterpart onboard the Louise-Marie is so important. “I decided to give the moral counsellor (or the ‘Padre’) a role in the documentary. The fact that the moral counsellor onboard is, in a certain sense, an outsider, just like us filmmakers, makes his role very interesting.”
Versteyhe knows that the success of the Dutch/French-language project depends on the casting of the central character, and therefore relishes the “challenge” of finding that perfect young recruit, whether they be male or female. “Somebody who is open enough to show the difficulties they are having during this month at sea,” she underlines.
In her notes, Van den Blink refers to the character (as yet to be cast) as Jonas, appropriately enough. “Jonas belongs to the so-called Generation Z, the first generation that grew up with the internet. On board the sailors can send messages, but most of the time they aren’t able to call or send pictures,” she explains.
“The fact that they are at the mercy of only written text can be interesting for the documentary. This generation is used to communicating with images, how do they translate the impressions of their first month at sea only in text for the home front? Due to the minimal forms of communication, the young sailors soon feel estranged from their home. As a result, feelings of loneliness are more likely to arise.”
She further describes how she intends to portray the overall sense of isolation and potential claustrophobia that her Jonas substitute may experience. “I think it’s interesting not to show the ship in its entirety and from a distance, but always to film on and in the ship. This increases the feeling of being locked up together with the sailors at sea. Within the world of routine, rituals and codes, I also want to bring out the human side.”
“I don’t want to show Jonas only as a sailor, but also his youthfulness. For this reason, I would like to work with a number of daydream scenes,” she adds. “In his daydreams, Jonas is completely free, in contrast to the limited freedom he has on the ship. I want to develop these daydream scenes in collaboration with Jonas. What does he [or she] daydream about? What does he long for? How can he escape from life on the ship? How can space be created for imagination, fantasy and youth? Through these scenes, I can really give Jonas the opportunity to express his desires. These feelings of longing for the opposite of what is on board will gain a place in the daydream scenes.”
The target audience for the 80-minute Lionheart Productions documentary is broad and catholic, ranging from adolescents and young adults to a more elderly demographic. Twenty per cent of the budget is secured and during RE>CONNEXT the production will be seeking out distributors, festivals, broadcasters and co-producers.
In conclusion, creative producer Versteyhe underlines how this is one production on which she is happy to leave her creative team all at sea.
