The lime-coloured Generator 13+ jurors attended the screening of SEA SPARKLE (by Domien Huyge), film in competition in Sala Truffaut. After many shorts, the director tried his hand with a full-length film, which deals with a challenging topic. To talk about the death of a parent is always an arduous task, and it’s not really easy to handle, mostly in front of young people. Lena’s grief is her very first challenge, a lesson she lives first hand. Coping with the death of a parent is difficult both in real life and in fiction. Huyge use every means he hated thus far, in order to show it: time jumps as excuses for some behaviours, excessive dramatizations, and dialogue with the parent in form of a ghost.
Domien Hyuge’s work created a powerful story, one that could be a source of contemplation for the kids, but also a source of magic and dreams. The way Lena faces this sudden loss can be said in one small word: denial. She believes that the sole culprit of her father’s accident is a glowing marine monster, who has attacked the ship and brought everyone’s death. The only thing she cares about is to make everyone – mostly her mother – believe that she is not crazy and what is saying is real. The little girl is persuaded that the monster is real.
The film – the final sequences most of all - was acclaimed by all Giffoners from Generator 13+. They asked many interesting questions to the director, who admitted building the film around his personal story. His father died when he was 14 and this loss made him angry with everyone. Like Lena, he hid a monster inside. He chose not to kill it but to look him in the face and deal with it, believing it’s the only choice possible. And it’s for this reason that only Lena can see the monster at the end: it’s the acknowledgment of her grief. The director also explains why this monster lives in the sea: because it’s still unknown to us, versus the already conquered moon. “The sea stands for the massive darkness we all have inside. We can’t swim against the waves, but we can go with the tide. Not unlike death. We cannot oppose it, only navigate through it.”
