24/08/2021 - The young Flemish director has just started filming this highly personal story in Ostend, co-written with his sister Wendy Huyghe

Discovered via his short film Maverick which proceeded to do the rounds on the festival circuit, young Flemish director Domien Huyghe has just kicked off filming on his debut feature film Sea Sparkle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Domien & Wendy Huyghe
interview: Thibaud Dooms
film profile], which he developed with his sister Wendy Hughe. The two of them lost their father at a very early age and drew inspiration from their personal experience for this movie, which was shot in Ostend, where they grew up.

It’s a live-action, fiction film which is geared towards young (and not-so-young) audiences, and which explores environmental themes, as well as the subject of grief.

Sea Sparkle follows Lena, a young adolescent and talented sailor whose father died at sea. She is determined to prove that her father wasn’t responsible for the boat accident which caused his death, alongside that of two other fishermen. She is convinced that a mysterious underwater creature, driven out of the abyssal depths by global warming, is haunting the waters of the North Sea. Lena will do everything she can to prove the existence of this beast and the innocence of her father.

There may be one new face among the film’s lead roles, in the form of Saar Rogiers, but the remainder of the cast are true stalwarts of Flemish cinema, starting with Hilde De Baerdemaeker (whom we just saw in My Dad is a Sausage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anouk Fortunier
film profile], released in Belgium in June), Sebastien Dewaele (notably the hero of the series entitled The Natives (Bevergem)), Lynn Van Royen (of the series Beau Séjour), and the young but impressive Sverre Rous (who plays the lead in Dealer [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Jeoren Perceval’s first feature film due for release in the autumn).

The screenplay comes courtesy of prolific Flemish author Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem, who also penned the script for Anouk Fortunier’s My Father is a Sausage a few months ago - another film for young audiences which takes children very seriously.

Sea Sparkle is produced by Dries Phlypo on behalf of A Private View (a Belgian firm the latter created with Jean-Claude Van Rijckegehm, and which also produced… My Father is a Sausage), in co-production with Viking Film (the Netherlands). The movie’s release is planned for 2022.

(Translated from French)