Requiem 2019

2012 / 5:39 min

The last remaining blue whale shares its story of extinction with its only enemy, mankind.

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Best Film Official Selection Sisak Eco Film Festival 2016, Croatia | Best Music San Gió Video Festival 2014, Verona, Italy | Vimeo Staff Pick 2013

Written and Directed by Rutger Hauer & Sil van der Woerd | Music Lolly Jane Blue | Dir. of Photography Keidrych Wasley | Visual Effects Sup. Evaldas Cesnavicius | Producers Radiator Film, Stefan Frost, Henrik Underbjer, Aarhus Festug, Anders Sondergaard | Cast Rutger Hauer | Line Producer Jais Christensen | Producer Ass’t Ann Pedersen | Stage Manager Ulla Malmos | Stylist Kirstin Zaschke | Costume Kirstine Barker | Gaffer Tobias Juhl | Sparks Jacob Molmberg, Amalie Haysley, Nina Tingberg | First Ass’t Camera / Focus Puller Steen K | Second Ass’t Camera Olafur Johnsson | Grip Claus Baadsgaard | Crane Uffe Egeberg, Frederik Holmberg | Drivers Thomas Krupsdahl, Kasper Tornbjerg | Lighting and Grip Equipment Sponsored by Medietek Equipment | Camera Equipment Sponsored by Red Rental | Green Screen Studio Sponsored by Film by Aarhus | Dolly Sponsored by Claus Baadsgaard | Catering Le Coq Den Rustikke | Visual Effects Valdemaras Dzengo, Viktoras Makauskas, Arminas Didziokas, Platon Filimonov, Justas Giedraitis, Rajbir Dhalla, Jorik Dozy, Dustin Blattner | Film Editing Sil van der Woerd, Wouter Nordsiek | Storyboard Dylan Ekren | Music ‘On My Own’ by Lolly Jane Blue | Written and Performed by Anouk de Groot, Tim Meijer | Sound Effects Paulius Kilbauskas | Whale Song Recorded by Mark Franklin www.ocean.org.au | Thanks to Crew and Sponsors Steve Kenis Christin, ‘Mini’ Pederson Jagtstuen Peder Pedersen, Grethe Krupsdahl, Hans Peter Krupsdahl, Dee Dee’s Sandwiches, Sea Shepherd, Pulpfix, Elmar Noteboom, Hotel Royal | Co Producer Picturewise Film, Henrik Laier, Jais Christensen | Executive Producer Jens Folmer Jepsen, Aarhus Festuge | Produced by Radiator Film, Filmlab Aarhus, Aarhus Festuge | With Support From West Danish Film Fund | All Rights Reserved 2011 Aarhus Festuge, Radiator Film, Sil van der Woerd

About The Project

Blue whales can reach a weight of up to 180 tonnes and a length of up to 30m. They can reach an age of 80-90 years and love to sing, hitting notes our ears can’t even perceive.

Although whales are the largest and amongst the most majestic animals that ever lived on our planet, they are still being slaughtered for human consumption under the false banner of 'research'.

In 2011, legendary actor Rutger Hauer (1944-2019), known for his roles in Blade Runner and Batman Begins, reached out to me to make a film to support the activities of anti-whaling organisation Sea Shepherd, for which he was an ambassador.

Although we're not the kind of people who have the stomach to go on a boat to block vessels on their way to the act of whaling, we felt that we can be the kind of people that make a film about it and take a stand against this injustice.

Rutger and I wrote and co-directed the film together and I captured Rutger's performance on a green screen stage in Denmark.

Although whaling is illegal in Denmark, the annual hunt known as the grindadráp, is still allowed in the Faroe Islands, which is part of Denmark. Here, hundreds of whales are still killed annually.

Production

We created the environment for the film digitally, and built a whale that we animated.

We used real whaling footage supplied to us by Sea Shepherd and projected it onto the digital whale's body.

Rutger Hauer

1944-2019