About 235 people live on Tristan da Cunha, a volcanic island in the South Atlantic that is considered the most remote inhabited place in the world. Question on the new movie Tristan Forever that the population should be allowed to increase by one.
The feature, directed by Tobias Nölle and co-directed by Dr. Loran Bonnardot, we just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama Dokumente section. It follows Bonnardot as a mysterious doctor and volunteer for Doctors Without Borders who decides to leave his old life for a new life in Tristan da Cunha. He must be tested for a year before the island’s governing council can vote on whether to allow him to stay permanently.
“[Loran] he found Tristan da Cunha at the age of 23 and started a relationship, a very close relationship with the island,” explained Nölle during a Q&A at EFM’s DocSalon, after the day of the world premiere. That is the plan of the film.”
Director Tobias Nölle
Features of Hugofilm
Nölle, who grew up in Zurich and now lives in Berlin, said he first met Dr. Bonnardot using his filmmaking partner.
“I had a French producer, Jean des Forêts, in a fictional film I made, The alarm clock. He called one day and told me that he knows this guy who is very busy with this island, and they are trying to make a film, and he might be interested in meeting me,” Nölle recounted. [Dr. Bonnardot] he came to berlin and we went on a trip and that’s how i met him and he quickly fell in love with her. And so, the first thing I did, I Googled [Tristan da Cunha] and I was like, wow, that’s too far and I want to go there. And the combination of the place and him made me decide that I want to do this film. “
Dr. Loran Bonnardot and the penguin friend in ‘Tristan Forever.’
Features of Hugofilm
In Tristan ForeverDr. Bonnardot made good intentions with negative efforts to integrate the community. He will work at a general store – about the size of a 7-Eleven island – and the possible love islands between him and Tristan’s wife who is in the process of divorcing. There is a certain dreamy or mystical quality to this place that is so far removed from what one usually thinks of as civilized. And, in fact, Nölle and Bonnardot call the film not a documentary but a documentary.
“That’s really the point – for the viewer to enjoy this fiction, where’s the documentary [element]? That was the idea because it’s a film about a place of utopia and you don’t really know if it exists,” commented Nölle. “Also, Loran told me at the beginning, sometimes he’s not sure if that place exists or if it’s just an image in his head. And for me it was clear if we could find this line between the real and the imaginary, that would bring crossing the feeling of the island. And so far, people who watch the film, like it. Sometimes they are not sure and obviously I will not tell them the truth. It comes from you. That is the riddle.”
There is something verified documentary material from the past 65 years was compiled Tristan Foreverblack and white photos shot in 1961 when a volcanic eruption forced the evacuation of all the island’s residents, who were relocated to the UK. Like Bonnardot but in reverse – from a remote area to a more populated area – the islanders were meant to settle permanently in their new place, but it didn’t take.
“After two years in the UK they said, ‘No thanks, we want to go back,'” reports Nölle. “And again [in] UK, [people] they are angry, because they get everything. They gave them televisions and jobs and cars and all that, but they said, ‘Oh, no, we’d rather go back to the end of the world.'”
Ships arrive every few months to resupply the island. Many “modern things” exist in Tristan da Cunha, not everything that is taken for granted in “developed” societies.
“You don’t have a cell phone network. You can’t send messages. The internet starts at 7pm or 5pm, I don’t remember. During the day they need it for ships and emergency types. And it’s very liberating when you get there,” said the director. “It sounds escapist, but in fact, almost for a moment I was relieved that he was away from it all. And at first, it was amazing. [text] home, ‘Oh, I’m here.’ But after a while it’s very easy to walk away from the phone.”
Laurent Bonnardot meets an albatross chick in ‘Tristan Forever.’
Features of Hugofilm
Could Nölle be tempted to follow the lead of Dr. Bonnardot and consider moving to Tristan da Cunha permanently?
“No,” he said without hesitation. After a break, he added, “I mean, I loved being there, but after a while I missed the continent again. No restaurant, no cinema. Mostly I missed going to the cinema or going to the theater, things like that. But I completely understand why I missed going to the cinema or going to the theater, things like that. [Tristanians] they decided to stay there and why they refused to leave. And if I had been born there, I would have been very happy and lived there. But when you come from outside, it’s different.”
Nölle continued, “I think everyone who goes there takes a little bit of peace from what they keep inside of them. And I hope I do too because the main thing on the island, really, they value unity over prosperity. And seeing that is very touching because I’ve never seen a place like that. And they take care of each other. Money doesn’t really matter.”
LR Michael Stütz (head of the Panorama section of the Berlinale), director Tobias Nölle, and co-director Loran Bonnardot at the world premiere of ‘Tristan Forever.’
Berlin Film Festival
This is Nölle’s second film to premiere at the Berlinale, after that The alarm clock in 2016.
“I like the festival, it’s a very warm festival,” he said. “Now I live in Berlin, so it was very nice to have a lot of people I know at the premiere. No, I only have good things to say about the festival… For this film, we had to decide when to go to a festival with more documentaries. But I think the Berlinale is perfect because it doesn’t care so much about the label – if it’s a mix, and I enjoy that film, and I enjoy it. really think in those terms, so, I think the Berlinale it is complete.
