A scene from ‘Unsinkable’ Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

For those who have grown up around a coast, port or fishing colony, a breezy sight of fishermen loading fish onto their trawlers is enough to remember how that air feels or those people every time they When you go to the sea, what do you carry in your heart? ocean. In the sleepy Danish port town of Hirtshals, the wind is not only an intrinsic and relaxing element, but also a haunting reminder of a painful past.

The year is 1981. Teenage Henrik (Sylvester Espersen Byder), accompanied by his family, watches his beloved father Rasmus (Anders Brink Madsen), a rescue mission leader, talking about the state-of-the-art RF2 on the telly. A rescue boat that has been tested to be practically unsinkable. For Rasmus and his wife Iben (Johann Louise Schmidt), Henrik and their pre-teen daughter Sophie are everything. Henrik works with his uncle Bo Tang (Lars Torp Thomsen) at the port during the day, and in the evenings, hangs out for beer with his best friend and partner in crime, Klaus (Elias Budde Christensen).

A scene from ‘Unsinkable’ Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

During a warm family dinner with Bo Tang and his wife Lissie (Sophie Torp), a distress message calls Rasmus to take action – a boat with Klaus on board has sunk, and Rasmus takes his RF2 on a rescue mission. Takes it away. While Henrik and Iben wait with their hearts in hand, Bo Tang, manning the tower’s microphone, delivers a message that permanently changes the lives of the Rasmus family and the fate of the Hirtshals: Klaus’ boat and Rasmus’s RF2s both sank with no survivors. Henrik has recently lost his father and his best friend, and to make matters worse, Rasmus is held responsible for why the sinking boat sank.

Scandinavian filmmaker and Hirtshals homeboy Christian Andersen, competing for the ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal at the 55th International Film Festival of India unimaginable (Or syncfree in Danish) appears from time to time. It is a cleanly written and conceived drama based on a real incident which took the lives of nine people in 1981. Using sounds and the background score to underline the terror of an impending disaster and its aftermath, Andersen almost makes us have a party with Henrik, his family. , and Klaus’ mother Silje, as they ride the waves of grief.

As much as it is about a tribute to the victims of the tragedy, unimaginable It also exposes wounds that can fester through carelessness. The conflict of the film comes to a head when Heinrich watches Bo Tang’s recording of the RF2 capsizing test in the harbor – a video that inspires Heinrich to go on his own journey, a journey that involves the fisherman, Bo Tang and his Everyone around him, including his mother, warns him. He should not venture into it.

Bo Tang and Heinrich in a scene from ‘Unsinkable’ Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

With well-planned characters and a capable cast – note Byder’s reaction when Silje asks Henrik about Klaus on the beach – unimaginable Based on the emotions of its world-weary teenage protagonist. The interpersonal dynamics are wonderfully woven; Iben is just as clueless as Henrik when it comes to dealing with grief, but his nonchalance about the turmoil he’s going through and where it takes him has something to say to all of us. What works in its favor is the good old Scandinavian school of humour, which provides some lightness; Like little Sophie jokingly comparing the weight distribution of a boat to a person’s body, or Bo Tang’s jab at Henrik over finding a woman’s clitoris, which comes at a very important moment.

However, you have to wonder if Anderson’s confidence has waned a bit here and there. For example, when you learn that Rasmus is shipwrecked, you naturally think of the shot of Rasmus and Eben seeking each other’s warmth underwater in the swimming pool – The only scene in the film showing the couple’s love for each other. Fearing that you won’t make the connection, Anderson shows Eben a specific example by reminding him about swimming. You wonder whether the placement could have been better or subtler, or whether some things could have been left for the audience to ponder and draw parallels.

Pockets of silence punctuate the film, but you wish the film would let the characters breathe in that silence more. Not a single beat takes you away from the world Anderson has created, but you wish you were allowed to sit quietly with Henrik, not watch him kick beer bottles with Klaus at his hangout spot. . This is a young boy who is broken into a million pieces, which is why having a viewer know what he does to you makes you want to know who Henrik really is. After all, isn’t drama rather a reflection of what we become in our solitude?

Sinquefree was screened at the ongoing 55th International Film Festival of India