Improvisational fiction short, 20′, 2024
LOGLINE
A young Ukrainian fulfils his dream of working on board a container ship, but the war at home and the dangers on board turn his coming of age into a crucial test.
DIRECTORS NOTE
Fire Drill tells a raw story about growing up and finding hope.
The film is improvisational fiction, shot amidst the ongoing operations of a container ship. It features real seafarers as first-time actors alongside a professional cast.
During preproduction, I travelled on container ships for several months, engaging with daily routines and interviewing crew members.
The aim was to capture the broad experiences of seafarers. Having worked as a shipping operator myself, I was driven to showcase this often-overlooked but vital part of the global supply chain.
During my last research trip aboard a ship, the Russian invasion of Ukraine occurred. I was among sailors directly affected by the conflict – a brutal war being waged against people, who just want to live like we do. Their struggles profoundly impacted me and significantly influenced the narrative of this film.
In Fire Drill, we see the ship through the eyes of a young Ukrainian man on his first voyage, determined to persevere and shape his life despite the war’s devastating impacts back home.
JURY STATEMENT FOR THE GERMAN SHORT FILM AWARD
Text by Felix Hassenfratz
A young man from Ukraine signs on to a cargo ship. The war in his homeland flickers like the distant tankers on the horizon. The ship becomes a temporary community of fate. A world within a drop of water. All dreams lie open. All hatches closed.
Between escape and refuge, Fire Drill tells a story as fragile as it is moving about the trials of growing up and the search for hope. Director and writer Maximilian Villwock has immersed himself deeply in the world from which he draws his stories. In the apparent lightness of his precise observations, we feel the months of intensive milieu research on the open sea. Over 156 days, a deeply human narrative unfolds, in which fiction becomes truth and the life stories of those on board are distilled into reality.
The visual language of Marco Müller and the extraordinary score transform the raw impressions of daily life on a container ship into impressionistic inner images that deeply move their audience. Fire Drill is not a radical film but a quiet, lyrical work full of hope. It draws from reality the poetic power of cinema.
AWARDS & OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis – Awarded for “best short film”
Torino Film Festival – Awarded for “Special Jury Prize”
FIRST STEPS Award – Nominated for “best cinematography”
Hof international Film Festival
Filmfest Dresden
REGARD – Saguenay International Short Film Festival
International Filmfest Bremen
CINEMARE Int’l Ocean Film Festival KIEL
Landshut Short Film Festival
International Short Film Week Regensburg
CAST & CREDITS
CADET
Arthur Aliiev
ABLE SEAMAN
John Ramon Bayoneta Duropan
ABLE SEAMAN
Robert Gil Loresto Gemora
ABLE SEAMAN
Edmark Dela Pena Estuya
BOSUN
Nelson Gonzaga Nayre
COOK
John Ezekiel Horneja Tan
MASTER
Artem Rybkin
CHIEF OFFICER
Sergei Savchenko
2ND OFFICER
Britan Viacheslav
CHIEF ENGINEER
Sergiy Kuznetsov
2ND ENGINEER
Petro Danchuk
ORDINARY SEAMAN
Robinson Matias Montes
OILER
Ernesto Dimaano Ramirez
AND FEATURING
Halyna Dzhun
DIRECTOR & SCREENWRITER
Maximilian Villwock
PRODUCER
Cléo Laetitia Campe
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Marco Müller
GAFFER & 1ST AC
Marek Lück
EDITOR
Anna-Lena Engelhardt
COMPOSER
Lukas Meinardus
Oscar Valentin Zöllner
Richard Meyer
SOUND DESIGN SUPERVISOR
Oscar Valentin Zöllner
SOUND DESIGNER
Eva Perhacova
SOUND MIXING
Till Aldinger
SOUND RECORDIST
Simon Ferber
FOLEY ARTIST
Joh Weisgerber
FOLEY ENGINEER
Anna Von Hammerstein
FOLEY PRODUCTION
Schaltgeraete Studios Gmbh
COLORIST
Jonny Thorpe
PRODUCERS GLASSWORKS
Bella Baillie
Andrew Patrick
POST PRODUCTION STUDIO
Glassworks Vfx
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Johnny Lee
CULTURAL ADVISOR & TRANSLATOR
Kristina Karabelesch
TRANSLATOR
Valeria Lukianets
Tara Illenberger
DRIVER
Borislav Salatino
Houssam Ibrahim
