WHALE

SYNOPSIS

DRAMATIC SERIES

Eva is a prisoner of war in an alternate, dystopian past. She relies on her imagination to cope with the constant chaos in Eden, often unleashing her greatest fears as well. Whale is a coming of age story tucked inside an epic war drama, chemical attacks, brainwashing exercises and bursts of magic realism. 

The themes of Whale circle around a child’s ability to fantasize – transforming the grotesque into something innocent, even beautiful. Eva coughs up butterflies when she learns that six soldiers died. This self-made magic is both a blessing and a curse – making her vulnerable to manifestations of her greatest fears as well, typically in the form of a whale. The inherent conflict is that she will eventually grow up, and be forced to abandon this formula for self-preservation. By the time Eva becomes a young woman, how will she process her oppressive, terrifying surroundings? Will she resist, like she did as a girl - or will she surrender to the police state of Eden? Imagination is both a coping tool and a detour. Imagination can provide answers to impossible questions, but in the end - we cannot escape our reality.

In Eden, people speak a mashup of Russian, French and Japanese. (English is strictly forbidden.) There are no cel phones or computers, and there are countless rules. Every day is structured, guided by a series of announcements – when to eat, when to exercise, when to hide under the table during an attack and when to make a pledge each morning. Conformity is the law, but everyone interprets these rules differently. 

Whale is set within a crumbling Soviet-era landscape. Abandoned factories, empty roads and cramped rooms become a canvas that frames each character. Shot with rigorous simplicity (literally with just one 28mm lens) the visual style is simultaneously sparse and lush. Told without exposition, the narrative voice of Whale is a literary one. Several multi-layered narratives weave into a cohesive whole, offering up the messy truths of a country at war. We invite viewers into his minimalistic visual novel without apology, cliffhangers or underscoring to pull at their heartstrings.

Whale is an easy match with the audience of films like Pan’s Labyrinth and Empire of the Sun, tv shows in the vein of The Handmaids’ Tale and books like The Painted Bird.

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