Maregrave

This poetic film portrays the North Sea as an "emotionless player" in human life. It gives and takes as it rises and falls on Belgium’s coast at Ostend. A tidal meter serves as our reference point in this impressionistic and contemplative documentary about one of the busiest seas in the world—keeper of human history, life giver and grave all in one. A montage of images from above and below the water’s surface reveals what the sea hides from view: abandoned fishing boats, lost lives and times past. And what will the future bring when sea levels rise? We hear about a storm that swept Ostend away when it was a fishing village in the 14th century, and see two men boring into the sand to locate the former settlement. A beach scavenger finds a ring, sparking fantasies of a treasure trove. A retired sea dog gazes at the horizon from his apartment on the coast. A pier is under construction. The dead are commemorated. A fisherman's song rises up.