links / references
CONTACT:Christine Duttlinger
christine.duttlinger@filmakademie.de
TRAILER
youtu.be/XsSmxiPsbiQ
seepferdchen-film.de/
|
Production Company
Christine Duttlinger
christine.duttlinger@filmakademie.de
TRAILER
youtu.be/XsSmxiPsbiQ
seepferdchen-film.de/
Seahorse
Synopsis
Five years ago, Hanan would never have dreamed that she would now be a swimming teacher. Fleeing IS from northern Iraq, in 2015 she crossed the Mediterranean with her family in a rubber dinghy. The boat filled with water, and Hanan couldn’t swim.She has an instant understanding with children who are afraid of water. Images of the vast blue sea and the fear of drowning are etched into her memory. Now living in Wolfsburg, Germany, she’s determined to have her younger brother learn to swim before his painful memories of the water rise to the surface, she says in an on-camera interview, as we follow her timid brother in the pool.
The seahorse in the title refers not only to the creature that remains upright in the water, but also to the area of our brain, the hippocampus, where our memories are stored. This balanced documentary shows how water can take on a new meaning over time, and how swimming has become Hanan’s way of coping with trauma.
“The magnificent cinematographic aesthetics create a convincingly poetic connection between the sound and the images. The film conveys the oppressive duality of water as a medium of happiness and doom. Seepferdchen gives the protagonist space to illustrate the traumatic effects of flight and how a young person can confront these experiences.” (Jury CIVIS Media Prize)
Cast & Crew
- DirectorNele Dehnenkamp
- ProducerChristine Duttlinger, Nele Dehnenkamp
- Director of photographyTobias Winkel, Sina Diehl
- Editor (Cut)
- SoundJohann Meis, Simon Droessler
- Compositing
- Sound DesignJohann Meis
- Original Score
Festivals/awards
2020DOK Leipzig Kids DOK
IDFA Kids & Docs
Visions du Réel Media Library, Nyon
2021
42 FF Max Ophuels Preis FF
Young C. Award – CIVIS Media Prize
15. Fünf Seen Filmfestival
Festival Court-Métrage Clermont-Ferrand
BIG SKY Documentary Film Festival
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
Cleveland International Film Festival
Best Documentary Short – Atlanta Film Festival
Doc Edge Festival
Palm Springs International ShortFest
Best Student Documentary Short – Indy Shorts International Film Festival
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
Uppsala Short Film Festival
Chicago International Children's Film Festival
Special Mention GROSSE KLAPPE – dox! Duisburg
Youth Jury's Prize – Documentary Short Film, 2nd Prize – Chicago International Children's Film Festival
27 Filmschau Baden-Württemberg
Predicted Nominee – 94 Oscar Best Documentary Short
2022
awarded with 58 GRIMME PRIZE
37 DOK.fest Munich
2023
22 NaturVision FF
Production Company
Cast & Crew
Nele DehnenkampChristine Duttlinger, Nele Dehnenkamp
Tobias Winkel, Sina Diehl
Jana Briesner
Johann Meis, Simon Droessler
Jana Irmert
Johann Meis
Paul Chriske
