IDFA Competitor Juan Palacios on ‘As the Tide Comes In,’ a Metaphor of Where We Are as Human Beings

variety.com:

Annika Pham Due to world premiere in IDFA’s international competition program on Monday, the Danish doc “As the Tide Comes In” is a collaborative work between Basque-born director Juan Palacios (“Meseta,” “Pedaló”), and the team behind the multi-awarded film “The Lost Leonardo”: Sofie Husum Johannesen, making her debut here as co-director, Andreas Dalsgaard, acting as executive producer and idea initiator, editor Nicolas Nørgaard Staffolani and producer Kasper Lykke Schultz.

With their shared anthropological perspective, the filmmaking team have captured the extraordinary life of the 27 residents of the tiny Danish Wadden Sea island of Mandø, which can only be reached at low tide.

The islanders – including Gregers, the only farmer and youngest of all – are stoically fighting off severe weather conditions and the risk of flooding, like survivors of a doomed refuge, waiting for the inevitable catastrophe to happen. “It is a metaphor for where we are as human beings and the challenges that we’re facing with climate change,” says Palacios about his observational pic, sparkled with humorous touches, such as in the main character’ introductory scene, where we see him trying to enter TV2 Denmark’s reality show “Farmer Wants a Wife.” The film was produced by Elk Film, with backing from the Danish Film Institute’s New Danish Screen and TV2 Denmark.

World sales are being negotiated at press time. Variety has an exclusive on the film’s poster and caught up with Palacios ahead of the film’s world premiere at IDFA, unspooling Nov.