Timeline
Cannes 2012 premiere
March 2012 Post-production
October 2011 Location shoot

Cast
David Thewlis
Norman
Emily Dunham
Thea
Shauna Macdonald
Mother

Writer & Director
Bonnie Wright

Director of Photography
Arthur Loveday

Producer
Rosalind Steven

Production Manager
Katie Radha Osterholzer

Production & Costume Designer
James Wreford

Editor
Daisy Moseley

Colorist
Matt Watson

Sound Design
Giulio Ammendola
Marcos Gómez

Composer
Tom Recknell

"A wistful tale of friendship between a lonely child and a bereaved man, set against the barren beaches of Dungeness" - Total Film, May 2012

Separate We Come, Separate We Go is the story of Thea, a 10 year old girl who escapes a bleak domestic life to find sanctuary in the surreal and deserted landscape of Dungeness. Roaming around the barren skeletons of boats and abandoned fishing boats, she begins to sense her loneliness and vulnerability.

From nowhere, a solitary man appears; Thea is so intrigued by him she defies lessons taught about strangers and approaches. As they walk together along the shoreline, she discovers his name, Norman, and that he has lost his wife and son. As the girl realises she is not alone in experiencing pain and loss, so he responds to her sadness and unusual maturity, and decides to lift her out of melancholy. The flight and freedom of birds becomes the simple metaphor through which he shows her that life has exciting and unknown possibilities.

Separate We Come, Separate We Go was Bonnie Wright’s directorial debut and the graduation short film from her BA in Film and Television at London College of Communication, University of the Arts in London. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 and went on to be screened at the Gold Coast International Film Festival, New York, in 2013.

"Sweet, gentle and assured, it’s an impressive first work from someone who clearly has ambition to burn."
— Empire, 24 May 2012