Synopsis
Tessa (15) lost her mother and feels alienated from her family. Her father Gerard spends all his time building a boat and her nerdy brother Emile (8) has become neurotic and basically intolerable. Tessa spends as little time with her family as possible. She sometimes wishes her dad had died instead of her mum.
Matters get worse when Gerard announces the true purpose for the boat. He believes there will be an apocalypse that will flood most of the world and intends to take the boat and his children to a lake in the Alps, where they will be safe. Tessa believes Gerard has lost his mind, but Emile trusts him - after his mother’s death, he no longer believes in happy endings.
Trapped on the road with her family, Tessa at first tries everything to escape, but slowly realises that Gerard is running away from his pain. Meanwhile, Gerard wakes up from his inner darkness and the apocalypse becomes less attractive. When the big flood doesn’t happen, the family surfaces from their emotional journey, having gained a new understanding for each other. The road ahead is long, but they will be able to continue with their lives.
The Ark is a bittersweet story about a family that is broken, but not beyond repair.
Script & intention
Two years ago I stumbled upon a website by people who believe there will be an apocalypse in 2012. What struck me most, reading about doomsday and survival strategies, was that these people are not only absolutely convinced that the apocalypse is going to happen, but also that they will survive it. I immediately saw a potential for a painful and funny story in that deeply human naivety and positivity.
While developing the story through the Script&Pitch training, I found out that there is a deeper core behind Gerard’s motivation to chase the apocalypse – the death of his wife. He wants to run away and to see everything that reminds him of his wife destroyed – even if it’s the whole world. The journey through Europe, the improving relationship with his children and the meeting with a woman who is able to open his mind and heart, wake him up from his darkness.
Tessa wants Gerard to get back to reality and be a caring father.
She tries everything to get his attention, to make him abort his idiotic mission, but it isn’t until she realises what drives him, that she can truly get closer to him.
Emile needs to restore faith in himself and life. He believes the worst can happen at any moment, he no longer believes that everything will be all right. The possibility of an apocalypse makes total sense to him. When disaster doesn’t strike for once, he realises, sometimes there is a happy ending, if only temporary. The recent loss has left the family wounded. Swallowed by their own individual pain, they are at once the worst and best people for each other.
After the death of one of the parents, the family dynamic changes profoundly. The wall that parents are for their children, collapses. The safety net is half gone, but the upside is that as a child, you become able to see the remaining parent as a person, instead of one part of a two-headed monster; you understand on a level that wasn’t possible before. The original family is broken, but a new balance can be found and has to be found, or the family is destroyed forever. This is the psychological journey that I want to explore in this story.
Despite the dark subject, I see The Ark as hopeful. It is a film about
restoration, about crawling back from the darkness into life. The way the children look at their father, and the absurd journey they take is both painful and offers room for comedy. This is a bittersweet story about waking up, about choosing life, love and beauty over death, destruction and despair.