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Born of Water

A young mother must fight for survival so she can return to her daughter in the midst of a raid on her island in 1372.

  • Alex Bates
    Director
    Occupied, Dare to Dream
  • Alex Bates
    Writer
    Occupied, Dare to Dream
  • Olivia Ephgrave
    Key Cast
    "Mother"
    Dare to Dream
  • Andrew Hislop
    Key Cast
    "Raider"
    Dare to Dream
  • Ethan Hitchon
    Key Cast
    "Husband"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Action, Historical, Drama
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 14, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    9,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    Guernsey
  • Country of Filming:
    Guernsey
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Channel Islands Premiere Screening
    St Peter Port
    Guernsey
    July 4, 2023
Director Biography - Alex Bates

Alex is a thoughtful and passionate writer/director born in Guernsey in 1999. He started out making stop motion animations at the age of 11 and has since moved on to live action short films. After graduating from the Northern Film School, where he directed the dystopian sci-fi short film Badges, he moved back to Guernsey and wrote and directed Occupied and Dare to Dream. He has since moved on to write and direct his latest short, Born of Water.

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Director Statement

The island of Guernsey, where I grew up, has a fascinating, rich and often overlooked history. After uncovering the story of the 1372 invasion of Guernsey, in which a huge portion of the population were killed, I felt driven to capture this little-known event in a short film.

I've always been fascinated by the relationship between faith and violence, so this story seemed to be the perfect way to capture that, with two strongly Catholic armies clashing in battle.

It's too rare that medieval films have female protagonists, so it was really important to me that we used one for this story, in order to show a unique female perspective of being on the receiving end of an invasion force.