The Old Man and The Whale asks the viewer to reflect on the elements that compose historical truth and to compare them within an anecdotal case study of a sailor in his 90s as he talks about his eventful life.Produced by BitterBlue Productions, The Old Man and the Whale marks the professional
debut of both BitterBlue as an independent film collective and for the director/producer
team of Cristina Ertze and Robin McAlpine as their first theatrical release.
Filmed in the coastal village of Lekeitio in the Basque Country (Spain) in the summer of
2007, The Old Man and the Whale is a half hour High Definition creative documentary
created on a minimal budget of approximately £5.000. The film combines director of
photography Ian Dodds’ ("Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle”, “Trouble Sleeping”) stunning visuals with elements of popular memory and folklore trough artistic collaboration
with artists of such international recognition as the Basque poet Kirmen Uribe. The personal narrative delivered by a series of
interviews with the director’s own grandfather, Antonio de Ertze Garamendi takes the
viewer along legends and historic moments as an impressionistic portrait left behind by
waves on a sandy shore.
