THE SHIPWRECKED
2025
Logline
As the world slips from his grasp, a filmmaker clings to the stories of others like driftwood—trying to build something that will float.
Sinopsis
What do you do when you’re handed this dazzling, precious, fragile thing called life?
If you handle it well, it might lift you up to glittering heights, but if you’re not careful, its weight might drag you down the abyss.
A disillusioned filmmaker, weary of the world’s state, returns to his homeland to shoot what he believes could be his final film. There, he follows a cast of characters grappling with the uncertainty of life. A restorer of saints and crumbling churches shares the power of storytelling. A young man raised on a luxury resort, dreaming of turning it into a vegetable garden, reflects the filmmaker’s own past. Two young biologists, in love with bats and with each other, show him the quiet resilience of love. And a struggling peasant, fighting to make ends meet, reminds him that without darkness, there can be no light.
Woven through their encounters runs the myth of a president who inherits from his corrupt predecessors, a gigantic eagle made of pure gold. The president envisions to use this golden bird to heal the soul of his wounded nation. Yet like all real people, he wrestles with the burden of releasing what was never his to keep. Something too captivating to surrender.
Set against the sweeping landscapes of Mexico’s deserts, jungles, and mountains, The Shipwrecked is a philosophical odyssey. It captures the reflections, fears, and hopes of a filmmaker who doesn’t merely observe his subjects, but clings to them—as if they might help him make sense of the world, using the only tool he has left: the uncertain, perhaps futile act of making a film.
2025, 115 min. The Netherlands/Mexico
Produced by Cobos Films in coproduction with VPRO
Director: Diego Gutierrez in collaboration with Albert Markus
Camera: Diego Gutierrez Miguel Labastida
Editing: Albert Markus in collaboration with Diego Gutierrez
Music: Alex Simu
Sound design and sound mix: Mark Glynne, Olmo van Straalen, Pim Stoltz
Written by Diego Gutierrez, Kees Rijninks and Tamara Vuurmans
Produced by: Carmen Cobos and Kees Rijninks
With the support of the Netherlands Film Fund and CoBo Fund
As the world slips from his grasp, a filmmaker clings to the stories of others like driftwood—trying to build something that will float.
Sinopsis
What do you do when you’re handed this dazzling, precious, fragile thing called life?
If you handle it well, it might lift you up to glittering heights, but if you’re not careful, its weight might drag you down the abyss.
A disillusioned filmmaker, weary of the world’s state, returns to his homeland to shoot what he believes could be his final film. There, he follows a cast of characters grappling with the uncertainty of life. A restorer of saints and crumbling churches shares the power of storytelling. A young man raised on a luxury resort, dreaming of turning it into a vegetable garden, reflects the filmmaker’s own past. Two young biologists, in love with bats and with each other, show him the quiet resilience of love. And a struggling peasant, fighting to make ends meet, reminds him that without darkness, there can be no light.
Woven through their encounters runs the myth of a president who inherits from his corrupt predecessors, a gigantic eagle made of pure gold. The president envisions to use this golden bird to heal the soul of his wounded nation. Yet like all real people, he wrestles with the burden of releasing what was never his to keep. Something too captivating to surrender.
Set against the sweeping landscapes of Mexico’s deserts, jungles, and mountains, The Shipwrecked is a philosophical odyssey. It captures the reflections, fears, and hopes of a filmmaker who doesn’t merely observe his subjects, but clings to them—as if they might help him make sense of the world, using the only tool he has left: the uncertain, perhaps futile act of making a film.
2025, 115 min. The Netherlands/Mexico
Produced by Cobos Films in coproduction with VPRO
Director: Diego Gutierrez in collaboration with Albert Markus
Camera: Diego Gutierrez Miguel Labastida
Editing: Albert Markus in collaboration with Diego Gutierrez
Music: Alex Simu
Sound design and sound mix: Mark Glynne, Olmo van Straalen, Pim Stoltz
Written by Diego Gutierrez, Kees Rijninks and Tamara Vuurmans
Produced by: Carmen Cobos and Kees Rijninks
With the support of the Netherlands Film Fund and CoBo Fund
