Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness

Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness is an absurdist musical travelogue. It follows Vincent, a solitary young man, as he rides on his moped through a deserted mountain region. His mission is to heal the loneliness of the few isolated inhabitants by introducing a mobile disco to the region. Driven by messianic determination and an addiction to petrol fumes, he struggles to keep his disintegrating vision afloat amidst the hostile landscapes and stubborn indifference of the locals.
Vincent is in a state of continual struggle with the realities of rural Scotland, with its vast barren landscapes and the unshakeable contentment of its inhabitants. His idiosyncratic wit, his eloquence and his heartbreakingly poignant pop songs create a cosmos in itself. The director tries to explore both the state of mind of the local people and create a portrait of a tormented dreamer. The film itself is designed in parallel - as a foolish and utopian enterprise amidst the bland conventions of industrial film production.
Laurin Federlein’s feature debut is a film about the joy of music and the yearning for the elevation and ecstasy of art. It is also a melancholy statement about the solitude of a visionary mind and a trip to a reality which we have already forgotten exists. (LC)