At this year’s Festival du Film de Marrakech, the competition selection included fifteen films from over fifteen nationalities. The Festival Grand Prize went to OUT OF BOUNDS (Denmark, 2011) by director Frederikke Aspöck.

Danish director Frederikke Aspöck

Frederikke Aspock’s film -Out of Bounds-, which debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, won The Golden Star Grand Prize. When I asked the film’s producer Thomas Heinesen about his film winning this award he stated: “Obviously we are extremely honored to win the great prize at The International Film Festival of Marrakech. The encouragement that this prize gives to a young filmmaker is enormous. It is one of the greatest thrills making movies when what you do have impact on and touches people in other parts of the world with different cultures and to succeed at one of the biggest festivals in Africa is fantastic.”

I saw the film during its premier at Cannes, which screened in ‘Un Certain Regard’ category and received a standing ovation from audiences. The film takes place entirely on a cold Scandinavian beach on the Baltic Sea, centering around three characters- Stella (Stephanie Leon), her boyfriend, Oskar (Carsten Bjornlund), and Stella’s father, Nathan (Jakob Eklund). Nathan lives on the remote Swedish shore of Gotland and Stella and Oskar have come to visit him. Out of all three characters, the only one that seems to be most in control is Stella; in fact, despite being pregnant she keeps both men in balance as they progressively fall prey to the ambient edge of the world wilderness around them. Like Nathan’s dutiful Labrador dog, Stella is able to keep her instincts in check and stay in control of herself while her boyfriend falls prey to growing paranoia and suspicion and her father creeps deeper into his reclusive dark creativity. She saves them from themselves and proves herself stronger than either man. This is a story where each character stands at the edge of their life, literally on the edge of the world, teetering farther away from the civilized and deeper into the impendng chaos of the out of bounds.

Written by Vanessa McMahon December 18, 2011