New York-based French director Charlotte Rabate talks about her short, shot along the shores of Thailand:

“It started with a location and a mermaid statue. We wanted to tell the story of a 12-year-old boy in a fishing village, abandoned by his mother at a very young age. The people of the village would tell him tales of a mermaid, who had no choice but to abandon her son. Once we arrived on location, we connected instantly with Man, a boy who had a story very close to our vision. Son of Samila became a hybrid film, a mix between fiction and reality, just like our character’s world.”