Cross to Templeham (2023)
| Cross to Templeham | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Ashton Chapman |
Running time | 121 minutes |
| Country | Zamastan |
| Language | Caticeze-English |
Cross to Templeham is a 2023 Zamastanian documentary film edited, written, and produced by Ashton Chapman. The documentary follows the journey of Ossinians fleeing the country during the rule of Martin Saint-Yves. As a consequence of the widespread poverty that came with the end of economic support from the former UCSS, 37,191 Ossinians left Ossinia in 2017, unimpeded by the Ossinian government, using anything they could find or build to get to mainland Zamastan from a perilous journey across the Ossinia Sea. Most left with improvised rafts, which were often not seaworthy, and some even hijacked a ferry. The documentary consists largely of interviews with the rafters, over the course of seven years the lives of seven of those refugees, from the building of their rafts to their attempts at building new lives in the port town of Templeham, giving insight into daily life in Ossinia and the refugees in Zamastan prior to the collapse of the Saint-Yves regime.
The documentary is 2 hours long. The first half is filmed in Périnnois, Ossinia, with in the end some scenes of the rafters' months long detention in Templeham, where lotteries were used to decide who would be allowed to stay in Zamastan. All the while, their families didn't know their whereabouts. The last hour is about the lives of those who got to stay. These people were filmed again five years later, showing their difficulties adapting to a new type of society and the resulting homesickness. The film premiered at the 97th Tofino Film Festival.