Wannes Vanspauwen

A diverse group of people are stuck in a traffic jam on a foggy highway, the mist persists and becomes a cloak of uncertainty.

Three men, surrounded by sleeping passengers, wake up on a stationary train. When it leaves them behind in a desolate area, a journey through a graphic snowy landscape commences.

Amidst an icy dreamscape, a woman takes refuge in a black metal karaoke bar. Outside, she finds a lone penguin stranded in a tree, cut off from its colony.

Twelve-year-old Zlata has to find her way in Belgium after she inevitably had to flee the war in her home country, Ukraine. Her father, Petro, and Findus, her cat, stayed behind, Mother Ira and little brother Martin came along. Step by step the adolescent girl explores not only her new living environment, but also her own identity. Awaiting the uncertain arrival of her father, Zlata slowly opens up.

"The One Close to the Sea shows the immersion of a filmmaker in a Scottish landscape. Not a narrative representation of what happens on the surface of this landscape, but the search for a simple rhythm, that lies underneath this landscape and makes up its essence. This is not a search for any landscape, but for that mode of being, that is essential to 'all' landscape. A search for what transforms mere place, into landscape. The rhythm of the land; light, movement, sound. The action of warm colours gives way to a deeper molecular game, that precedes all surface action. Not the violence of lightning, but the silent force of a charged cloud. Not a hymn of praise for nature, but an icy breath that is the direct expression of this nature. Not the chaos of a forest in bloom, but the simplicity of a bare landscape. The camera seeks to move at this level, at this rhythm, a rhythm that is not only the essence of nature, but also the essence of cinema..." (Thijs Klaps, 2023)

From the music of American composer Daniel Hart, Belgian filmmakers Wannes Vanspauwen and Pol De Plecker craft a story of a man struggles with his umbrella during a heavy rain storm.. This short film is part of the 2x25 Project of Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards. The project commissioned 25 composers to compose a short piece of music, after which 25 filmmakers made short films that are the ultimate symbioses of music and cinematography, fitting completely within the DNA of the festival. The result: 25 exceptional films where the music inspired the form, narrative and texture.

Fragmentary experiences of little Tinus in which direct confrontation with life and suffering is never far away.