10th edtion CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Atlantic. (2015 Feature Film)

Jan-Willem van Ewijk | Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Morocco | 2014 | 89 min | Arabic, French

Fettah’s desire for freedom in Europe is greater than his love for his homeland and family. The young fisherman sets off on an exhausting, perilous journey across the terrain he knows best: the ocean. And not by boat, but on his surfboard. Breathtaking, poetic and exciting.

Young Moroccan fisherman Fettah feels lost between two worlds; his poor yet familiar village on the Atlantic coast and the exciting world of the rich European tourists who come there every summer to surf. One summer, he befriends Alexandra (Thekla Reuten). Once she has left, Fettah feels more than ever like a prisoner in the village. He decides to go to Europe – on his surfboard. It is a long, hazardous and lonely journey, 300 miles across the open sea. Every wave brings new doubts and dangers. His dreams and memories start to play with him. Every day, the horizon is still just as far away.

The stunning scenes in the open ocean are convincing in their beauty, but also because both the director and the principal actor, champion windsurfer Fettah Lamara, are devotees of the sport. The screenplay is partly based on Van Ewijk’s own experiences in the small fishing village and windsurfer’s paradise of Moulay Bouzerktoun in Morocco.

Place: The Cinemas 2

Date: 03/26/2015

Time: 19:45:00

Duration: 01:45:00

Place: The Cinemas 6

Date: 03/27/2015

Time: 14:15:00

Duration: 01:45:00

Place: The Cinemas 4

Date: 03/28/2015

Time: 22:00:00

Duration: 01:45:00

Year in
Festival

2015

Director

Jan-Willem van Ewijk

Camera

Jasper Wolf

Cast

Fettah Lamara
Thekla Reuten
Mohamed Majd
Boujmaa Guilloul
Hassna Souidi
Soufyan Sahli
Wisal Hatimi

Country

Netherlands
Belgium
Germany
Morocco

Editor

Mona Bräuer

Language

Arabic
French

Length

89 min

Music

Piet Swerts
Mourad Belouadi

Producer

Bero Beyer
Jan-Willem van Ewijk
Marion Hänsel
Fabian Massah

Production Company

Augustus Film, Propellor Film, Man’s Films Productions, Endorphine Production

Production Design

Karim Haffad

Sales

Fortissimo Films

Scenario

Jan-Willem van Ewijk
Abdelhadi Samih

Sound Design

Christian Monheim
Gervaise Demeure
Franco Piscopo

Year of Production

2014

Website

Jan-Willem van EWIJK (1970) grew up in the Netherlands and California. At the age of nineteen, he moved back to Delft to study Aerospace Engineering. After graduating, Van Ewijk worked in the field of engineering until in 2002, when he changed course, quit his job and wrote and directed his first feature film, Nu. (2006). One year later, his debut was awarded Best Film at the European Independent Film Festival in Paris. His second feature film, Atlantic., premiered in 2014.