Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: FROM THE WILD SEA [Berlinale 2021 - Virtual]

Any approach to documentary is always about perspective but that is usually through opinions and visual style so the narrative is created by that. What is interesting in "From The Wild Sea" [Generations/14Plus] is that is gives the perspective of the animals ; from certain levels unflinchingly. And when it does that it can be haunting, uplifting and reflective all at the same time. Even the first shot does this as a seal who is about to be released is inside a cage which is obviously is not its natural habitat. But this is just to establish a basis. As the film goes on (and it seems much of it was shot during the pandemic) the longer we stay on some of the animals, whether they have what seems like emotion reactions or not, the empathy is there. While there is a non-profit featured that helps treat their wounds and there are rumblings with industry and climate change present in some of the conversations and inferences in the doc, some of it is natural in a certain way.

One of the first examples is a seal who doesn't seem to be too much trouble but in helping it, the caregivers almost have to be invasive. You see the seal struggle and be the animal it is but there is also something more. Later on one lays dying and the viewer only sees the gentle seizures. Not all of the cases end this way. Some survive. Some are returned to the wild. Some are too in shock. One stares at the camera from behind a tub, almost curious and playful. There are also porpoises but there is not as much personality shown in the one that is treated (although an later autopsy of another one speaks to the industrial impact of man made elements in the ocean). One of the more epic pieces involves what looks like a humpback that has washed onshore and is dying after unable to escape a storm and being thrashed on the rocks. The camera lingers on its mind and one wonders what it is thinking. There is a bit of an existential and Darwin-esque nature to it. It all comes down to timing in this instance as the tides will determine how long it can survive. And the revelation that the whale' body beach cannot sustain its organs from being crushed on land is an undeniably irony.

Some of the specialists, speaking not to camera but to volunteers they are training, do make a good point that if a fish is beached, sometimes it is better to call a vet than help it back in the water, both because of danger but also the trauma of being helped might cause more damage than good. Despite the harrowing aspect of some of what it is shown it is all for good. The geese for example provide a nice respite of levity even though it seems they are being cleaned of oil. One long sequence in a car as well as waiting to be washed are just fun and joyful because it is just geese being geese. They aren't tense per se. They are getting scrubbed, driven around and explore from their cages. "From The Wild Sea" provides for a slightly different lens while still making some important points. But the beauty is seeing perhaps a little of what we do from the avenue of the animals in their eyes. B+

By Tim Wassberg