On the Sea

On the rugged coast of North Wales, Jack runs a multi-generational mussel business alongside his brother. He leads a predictable life centered on faith and community with his wife and child, until his fifteen-year-old son unexpectedly announces that he does not wish to follow in his father's footsteps. Family tensions are already running high when Daniel, a mysterious seasonal worker, arrives and stirs up feelings in Jack that shake his carefully constructed existence to its very foundations. As gossip spreads like wildfire through the village, Jack is forced to confront what he has kept deeply buried for years. In this sensitive romantic drama exploring masculinity, desire, and the breaking of patterns, we follow him on a courageous quest for his own identity.

On the Sea is the second feature film by director Helen Walsh and premiered this summer at the 79th Edinburgh International Film Festival. It won the Audience Award at the Lovers Film Festival in Turin and received a special mention for its score at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. Lead actor Barry Ward visited the Noordelijk Film Festival in 2024 with the film That They May Face the Rising Sun (2023).