Atlantic, the much awaited windsurfing feature film, will hit European screens in early 2015.
The story of a young Moroccan who windsurfs across the vast ocean in search of a new life, Atlantic is probably the most anticipated windsurfing movie in a very long time. Plus, it’s something a non-windsurfer can enjoy too as it brings together a breathtaking story with incredible windsurfing action (including from Boujmaa Guilloul).
The trailer for the movie recently went public (check it out below), now Boards brings you a full details the movie including a plot run down, words from the director, details of the two main actors, a full cast list, plus a full gallery from the making of the movie.
After watching European tourists come and go for many years, Fettah takes off on an epic ocean journey along the Moroccan Atlantic coast to Europe on a windsurf board.
ATLANTIC Trailer | Festival 2014 from TIFF on Vimeo.
FILM SYNOPSIS
Fettah is a dreamer. For years he has watched the European windsurfers come and go. Every summer when the Northern winds start blowing, they visit his tiny fishing village on the Moroccan Atlantic coast where a stone reef creates the perfect waves. Fettah was quick to make friends with them and eagerly adopted their free way of speaking and their liberal views on the world. And he has become an incredible windsurfer himself, learning his skills on the old equipment they left behind.
But at the end of each summer, his European friends leave and during the long, empty winters he often finds himself longing to be with them, dreaming of a life far away. He knows he is stuck. He cannot afford to migrate to Europe and his aging father has become increasingly dependent on him. So over time, Fettah has learned to keep his dreams to himself.
Then one summer his Dutch friend Jan brings his girlfriend Alexandra to the village for the first time and they stay with Fettah and his father. Fettah is immediately taken by her mysterious, introverted nature and she clearly enjoys being around him. She reminds him of his mother, who drowned when he was a child, and he finds himself slowly falling in love. But he knows she is out of reach and will soon be off to Europe again.
When he watches her car disappear in the distance at the end of summer, something inside him breaks. For weeks, he aimlessly wanders the empty village streets. The generosity of his father, the jokes of his buddy Sufyan, the patient love of his cousin Rahma, even the complete admiration of his biggest little fan, Wisal, who is like a daughter to him… they no longer fill him with joy. Instead, they make the village feel like an inescapable prison.
But the human spirit often shines most brightly in its darkest hour and the pain and desperation push Fettah to set in motion a bold and adventurous plan. When the Southern winds of autumn arrive, he packs his backpack, puts on his wetsuit, takes his windsurf board and sets sail for Europe.
The wind carries him North along the Atlantic coast, past Casablanca and out onto open water, as he attempts to circumvent the heavily guarded waters around Gibraltar. Soon he is surrounded by the endless ocean; the mother of all life but also the mirror behind which his own mother disappeared, the mirror in which Alexandra’s image is fading, the mirror in which he now sees himself clearer and clearer. Far from land, alone and disoriented, Fettah finds that the pursuit of his dream does not come without sacrifice.
This film was made possible in part with support from the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.
