Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness (2007)

Synopsis: An absurdist musical travelogue, Build a Ship follows young solitary Vincent as he rides on his moped through a deserted Scottish mountain region. His mission: to “heal the loneliness” of the few... An absurdist musical travelogue, Build a Ship follows young solitary Vincent as he rides on his moped through a deserted Scottish mountain region. His mission: to “heal the loneliness” of the few scattered inhabitants by introducing a mobile disco to the area. Driven by messianic determination and an addiction to petrol fumes, he struggles to keep his disintegrating vision afloat amidst the hostile landscape and stubborn indifference of the locals.

Conceived around the idiosyncratically witty and eloquent persona of lead-actor and collaborator Magnus Aronson, whose heartbreakingly poignant pop songs punctuate the low-key proceedings, Build a Ship is based on many hours of conversations between Aronson’s Vincent and the real-life residents of the area and was filmed using two consumer Hi8 video camcorders, resulting in an intentionally low-fi, grungy look that corresponds to Vincent’s defiant struggle: to erect a vision of perfection, glamour, and aesthetic refinement within the imperfections and dullness of everyday reality.

Build a Ship is a film about the joy of music, and the yearning for the elevation and ecstasy of art. It is also a melancholy statement about the solitude of a visionary mind, with Vincent as a holy (yet far from innocent) fool sailing the borderlands between illusion and delusion. [More]

Director: Laurin Federlein

Director: Laurin Federlein
Screenwriter: Magnus Aronson, Laurin Federlein