How does changing from old to new industries affect people and places? What is a building, when it is no longer what it was before? What stories can be seen, and which ones are invisible?
Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani‘s film The Line was shot in the former Nakskov shipyard in the south of Denmark. Large parts of the shipyard have now been demo- lished. The film is about a former shipbuilder who has trouble letting go of his job. We follow his movements, starting in the template loft, where you can still see life-size drawings of a ferry, a tanker and parts of the Farø Bridge, and as he walks out into the shipyard itself with its scrapped ships, cranes and wind turbine blades. All the while, he continually draws a line behind him as a tangible link between the traditional ship- building skills and the modern, digital way of building wind turbines.
The Line revolves around the loss of identity that occurs when a community loses its principal workplace and a traditional craft. The film reminds us that today‘s digital models render working processes invisible and shift them out of their context. Fischer and el Sani explore the void left behind in a building and an urban space with an unknown future, capturing the tension and uncertainty it houses.