Bridgend

Jeppe Rønde : 2015

Over a five-year period between 2007 and 2012, in the county borough of Bridgend in south Wales, 79 people, mostly teenagers, took their own lives by hanging, without leaving any clue as to why. Sara, with her father Dave, returns to a small community in Bridgend where Dave, a police officer, is investigating the suicide of a young person. Also a concerned father, he tries to stop Sara becoming involved with the insular, hostile local youths, and to avoid the dangerous tensions that arise when Sara falls in love. Juxtaposing a raw realism with almost magical images – misty woods, the invocation of the dead, naked teenagers, drifting on a lake – the film is an uncompromising story focused on the relationship between vulnerable, isolated teenagers and their parents who are left in the dark, as the inexplicable suicides gradually take on the character of a punishing ritual. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Jeppe Rønde conducted extensive research in the former mining area, winning the confidence of the local population. Following a number of teenagers over six years, he incorporated their stories into the screenplay of this atmospheric, at times mysterious social drama. His first fiction feature premiered in competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015.