The new surf movie from the makers of The Old, the Young & the Sea

Africa, despite its size, still remains a mystery for many. It seems that a faint barrier prevents us from establishing a close connection to this giant continent and its abundance of cultures – It feels like as if it lies in the past not in the present.

Through BEYOND, we want to immerse ourselves in a region of West Africa to establish a close connection between Africa and Europe, and we’ll do so with a seemingly mundane topic: surfing.

How do people experience the rise of a leisure culture and the values that the West embraced in the sixties, such as individualism, personal fulfillment and the dominance of free time? Where are the potential conflict points with local traditions and where

could they find common ground? And even more fundamentally: what is important for people and how can we adapt, wherever we are? Surfers of all ages, craftsmen, tycoons, taxi drivers, nomads, fishermen, pioneers, women at markets and tourists – we interviewed all of them.

Our six-strong European media team is looking to document this moment in history in an engaging and authentic film. Every day, the cross-media concept allows the team to compile film clips, sound bites, photographs and written work, combining impressions captured during their journey from Arabic-influenced Morocco to Senegal via Mauritania.

This text was carefully translated from German to English by our friends of FREITAG.

Beyond, a surfmovie about Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia, is made possible with support of our great co-producers from Lotus-Film, funded by the Austrian Film Institute, ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) as well as our dear sponsors Blue Tomato, side by side and FREITAG.

To become real you need a great crew in the field (image below fltr): Mario Hainzl (director), Andreas Jaritz (producer), Roman Königshofer (camera), Felix Gänsicke (camera), Judith Recher (project photography), Rene Eckert (camera)