The film is a documentary that follows a fictional woman who breaks out from her petit-bourgeois family, in order to find herself and her freedom, in the unstaged, real documentary world around her.

The woman – and the film – is a modern, surrealistic parafrase over the Danish silent movie star Asta Nielsen. Her voyage takes her to Moskow, Berlin, Copenhagen and various places in Mexico. She is haunted by the child she has left behind and confronted with various versions of herself. She finds love and is getting involved with politics, as a nazi as well as a communist. The price of freedom is life – for herself and many of whom she meets.

The film is a sensous, cinematic epos, created in an intentional and improvised meeting between the protagonist Asta (played by Helle Fuglsang), the cameraman José Villalobos and the people and reality they are confronting on their way.

The Abyss Returns has been underway for more than three years now and we expect to be almost done with the shooting.

Presently we have a 2:45h timeline of the development of the story.

Untill now the project has been supported by The Danish Art Council, and we are currently looking for further financing from amo. The Danish Film Institute.

(April '21)

Director: Helle Fuglsang and José Villalobos

DOP: José Villalobos

Producer: Morten Vest and TBA.
Editor: TBA