The Sea's Call
Submission by Alice Fassi Words by Nastasia Khmelnitski
Alice Fassi is a Director and Photographer from Milan, Italy. She conceptualizes stories and tells those by filming short features. The characters exist deep in their thoughts, ponder on questions for which the answer might not exist. The line between reality and the world of unconscious thoughts is blurred, and while contemplating, the person is not fully present.
How does the sea sound? What’s it like to pause and listen to the breath of the waves? What if the sea never answers? Facial micro expressions of detachment, boredom, expectation, and eventually a slight surprise replace one another. The wait is unbearable, the time stands still in this golden, miraculous atmosphere of dreamlike reality when suddenly the voice appears.
Director and Editor Alice Fassi MUA Elisa Maisenti Stylist Camilla Caserta Talent Alexiey Barbaro Music Simon Mathewson
The Story
A weird golden face man is desperately trying to call someone through a giant seashell. It seems impossible, and he tries to get distracted, but he can’t stop thinking about it. When he’s losing his hopes, a sweet female voice finally answers: that’s the sea. I tried to imagine this story inspired by my childhood memories. My parents were great collectors of seashells: every holiday they had, they brought home some, as a souvenir. One day, my father put a seashell on my ear, and he said, “Listen to it, it’s the sound of the sea”. After that, every time I went to the beach, I disappeared for hours and hours looking for seashells. I noticed that every seashell had a different sound and I thought it depended on the sea where they were collected. I became obsessed.
I was really sad when I discovered that the sound was only an echo provoked by the absence of the animal.
With this video, I tried to get back to my childhood. This time I imagined that the sea had a real and sweet voice, something that seems to scare and attract the protagonist in the same way. Inspired by the French "theatre de l'absurde", the atmosphere is surreal, and the end is suspended, as I really like to give viewers a free interpretation. A lot of people asked me “why his face and a lot of scene objects are golden?”. Gold reminds me of sunset reflections of the sea, fishes and a mermaid’s tale.
‘Inspired by the French "Theatre de l'absurde", the atmosphere is surreal, and the end is suspended.’
Anyway, I could say that I came on set with an idea and I came home with another one. I never respect my storyboard. That happens to me very often, because I’m very impulsive and I let myself be inspired by the situation. I can say that this video was not planned to be like this at all, and all the team was really surprised by what it became in the editing phase.
