God, Please Send a Whale
Julie Bezerra Madsen / Denmark / 2024 / World Premiere / 75 min
A Danish family travels to Brazil to say goodbye to their mother, who passed away six years ago. But things don't quite go according to plan. Can the father and the two adult sisters reach each other and talk about loss, life and death?
When filmmaker Julie Bezerra Madsen’s mother died six years ago on holiday in Brazil, she didn’t make it to the funeral. Ever since, there has been an open wound in the memory of her mother that she now wants to close. So Julie invites her father to Brazil, where her older sister lives. The two sisters have never really talked about the loss of their mother. But when the family meets in Rio, Julie realises that the others might not be as keen on the idea of a farewell ceremony in honour of her mother. They’d rather go bowling and sing karaoke, and Julie is left alone with her plan for a delayed funeral. But maybe there is a way to bring the family together and tie up the loose ends of their shared history once and for all.