''Separate We Come, Separate We Go'' is a 2012 British

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

written and directed by

Bonnie Wright Bonnie Francesca Wright''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 17 February 1991) is an English actress, filmmaker, and environmental activist. She is best known for her role as Ginny Weasle ...

. It is Wright's directorial debut. The film had its world premiere at the

2012 Cannes Film Festival The 65th Cannes Film Festival took place from 16 to 27 May 2012. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti was the president of the jury for the main competition. French actress Bérénice Bejo hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Austrian filmma ...

Short Film Corner on 21 May 2012 and screened at the BAFTA Graduate on 11 June 2012. It premiered in the United States at

Gold Coast International Film Festival The Gold Coast International Film Festival launched in 2011, on the north shore of North Hempstead, New York. The festival, now held every November, completed its 7th year in 2017. The festival is produced by the Gold Coast Arts Center, a not-for- ...

on 25 October 2013.

Premise

Thea, a ten-year-old girl, lives with her mother in a town in East Sussex. One day while trailing the coast alone, she meets a man and becomes friends with him, starting a journey during which she finds possibilities she didn't know existed.

Cast

David Thewlis David Wheeler (born 20 March 1963), better known as David Thewlis (), is an English actor and filmmaker. He has appeared in a variety of genres in both film and television. He has received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and nomin ...

as Norman *Emily Dunham as Thea * Shauna Macdonald as The Mother

Production

Development

Wright directed and wrote the screenplay for the film as a part of her graduation course at

London College of Communication The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. Its origins are in education for the printing and retail industries; it now specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation ...

. Wright produced the film by her own production company, Bon Bon Lumiere, along with Rosalind Steven. Funding were also provided by a

fish and chip shop A fish and chip shop, sometimes referred to as a chip shop or chippy, is a restaurant that specialises in selling fish and chips. Usually, fish and chip shops provide takeaway service, although some have seating facilities. Fish and chip shop ...

located at

Dungeness Dungeness (, ) is a headland on the coast of Kent, England, formed largely of a shingle beach in the form of a cuspate foreland. It shelters a large area of low-lying land, Romney Marsh. Dungeness spans Dungeness Nuclear Power Station, the ham ...

and

Romney Marsh Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about . The Marsh has been in use for centuries, though its inhabitants commonly suffered from malaria until the ...

, where most of the filming took place, as London College of Communication rules state that films can be funded by voluntary donations only.

Filming

Filming took place at sparsely populated areas of

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

, including

Lydd Lydd is a town and electoral ward in Kent, England, lying on Romney Marsh. It is one of the larger settlements on the marsh, and the most southerly town in Kent. Lydd reached the height of its prosperity during the 13th century, when it was a ...

Camber Sands Camber Sands is a beach in East Sussex, England, in the village of Camber, near Rye. It is the only sand dune system in East Sussex. Located east of the estuary of the River Rother at Rye Bay, it stretches to just beyond the Kent border, w ...

Rye Harbour Rye Harbour is a village located on the East Sussex coast in southeast England, near the estuary of the River Rother: it is part of the civil parish of Icklesham and the Rother district. Rye Harbour is located some two miles (3.2 km) dow ...

Winchelsea Beach Winchelsea Beach is a seaside village in the parish of Icklesham in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The village is located about east of Hastings, and about south east of Winchelsea. The beach itself faces Rye Bay, the estuary o ...

and

Dymchurch Dymchurch is a village and civil parish in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, England. The village is located on the coast five miles (8 km) south-west of Hythe, and on the Romney Marsh. History The history of Dymchurch began w ...

. Talking about the filming locations Wright said that "I wanted to make something personal and I’ve spent a lot of time in Dungeness, because my parents have a house just down the coast from there, so it has a strong connection to my family. Also, I was always a massive fan of Derek Jarman and he spent his last years there. I just love the strangeness of it, the bleakness. The more I’ve been there, the more I fall in love with it." She also said that "Romney Marsh is an area where I spent a lot of time when I was a child. Growing up in a city such as London, it’s so confined sometimes that as a child there is no feeling of a horizon, there’s nothing beyond what you know. So for me I was so lucky to have that experience of spending a lot of time in open spaces such as Romney Marsh that I was able to gain that feeling of beyond. As a young child I was obsessed with horizons."

Music

The

score SCORE may refer to: *SCORE (software), a music scorewriter program * SCORE (television), a weekend sports service of the defunct Financial News Network *SCORE! Educational Centers *SCORE International, an offroad racing organization *Sarawak Corrido ...

for ''Separate We Come, Separate We Go'' was composed by Tom Recknell, who composed the piece "The Birds".

Reception

The film received positive reception from critics after its premiere at Cannes Film Festival. A review in the magazine ''

Total Film ''Total Film'' was a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly with a summer issue added, between the July and August issues, every year since issue 91, 2004) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and of ...

'' described the film as "a rather sweet, very personal story about a little girl who meets lovely David Thewlis and learns to stretch her limitations." Nick de Semlyen of ''

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'' praised Wright's direction, writing "it's an impressive first work from someone who clearly has ambition to burn."

References

External links

* *
Bonnie Wright talks about Separate We Come, Separate We GoBonnie Wright Separate We Come, Separate We Go Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Separate We Come, Separate We Go 2010s coming-of-age drama films British coming-of-age drama films British independent films British drama short films Films set in Sussex Films shot in Kent Films set in Kent Films shot in England Films set in England British student films 2012 short films 2012 films 2012 independent films 2012 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films English-language drama short films English-language independent films