When the Whales Came

When the Whales Came (DVD) (*)

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Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Italian ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Italy ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
82 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1989 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Clive Rees

Written By:
Michael Morpurgo

Actors:
Paul Scofield ..... The Birdman
David Threlfall ..... Jack Jenkins
Helen Mirren ..... Clemmie Jenkins
Helen Pearce ..... Gracie Jenkins
Max Rennie ..... Daniel Pender
Jeremy Kemp ..... Mr. Wellbeloved
John Hallam ..... Treve Pender
Barbara Ewing ..... Mary Pender
Dexter Fletcher ..... Big Tim
Nicholas Jones ..... Vicar
Joanna Bartholemew ..... Miss Tregarthen
Barbara Jefford ..... Auntie Mildred
Irene Wilson ..... Molly Woodcock
Fergus Rees ..... The Birdman as a Boy
Kerra Spowart ..... Margaret Pender

Synopsis:

The setting is Bryler, one of the isles off the southwest coast of England, in 1914. Daniel (Max Rennie) and Gracie (Helen Pearce) are best friends in this small community where the struggle to make ends meet is arduous. Daniel's creative spirit and natural curiosity are stifled by his abusive father and an authoritarian schoolmaster. He comes into his own identity when he and Gracie befriend the Birdman (Paul Scofield). This outsider who fled the nearby island of Samson 70 years ago with his mother, knows the tragedy that befell his community after the villagers slaughtered a group of beached whales. Although deaf, the Birdman finds fulfillment doing wood carvings of animals. He teaches Daniel the art of long looking. And when Gracie's father goes off to fight the Germans in World War I, he provides anonymous gifts of food to her hard-pressed mother (Helen Mirren). The beaching of a whale compels the Birdman and his two young friends to take a stand against the greedy and self-centered instincts of the other villagers.

When the Whales Came speaks softly about the ecological web that draws together all living things on the earth. It is about the courtesy that we, in the spirit of Birdman, must extend to the natural world. And it proclaims the way community can be enhanced when we work together to save rather than take life.

A pair of children befriend an accentric old man, who lives isolated on the far shore of their island home. But it turns out that the old man knows a terrible secret about the island and the narwhales who sometimes come. Meanwhile WWI is making life hard in the village.

This product was added to our catalog on Monday 26 March, 2012.

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