Naval Ode Joins the Whush Catalogue

Whush is proud to welcome Naval Ode by Fu Le, a mesmerizing fusion of dance, poetry, and cinema that transforms Fernando Pessoa’s legendary poem Ode Maritima into a breathtaking audiovisual experience.

Inspired by Pessoa’s meditation on departure, longing, and the invisible spaces that separate us from one another, Naval Ode unfolds as a suspended dream between land and sea, presence and absence, self and other. Through a hypnotic choreography performed by Magalie Lanriot and Roel Q Seeber, and accompanied by the evocative music of Dead Combo, the film creates a world where movement becomes language and emotion takes physical form.

Rather than illustrating the poem, Fu Le inhabits it. The camera drifts, circles, and breathes alongside the performers, becoming an active participant in the choreography. Every gesture feels like a tide, every frame like a living painting. The result is a cinematic experience that exists somewhere between dance, sculpture, and trance.

A graduate of the prestigious National School of Arts and Crafts in Paris, Fu Le has built an international reputation as both filmmaker and choreographer. His award-winning dance films have screened worldwide, and his research into the relationship between body, space, and image has established him as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary screendance.

Whush curator Kris De Meester on the film's inclusion:

"Naval Ode is one of those rare films that reminds us cinema can still surprise us. The visual language is astonishingly rich and immersive. Watching it on a large screen, you don't simply observe the film—you enter it. The choreography of the camera, the movement of the bodies, and the rhythm of Pessoa's poetry combine into a deeply sensory experience that can feel almost disorienting, as if the image itself were pulling you into another state of perception. It's visually stunning, intellectually engaging, and emotionally transporting."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGILwzoqV2c

What makes Naval Ode particularly remarkable is its ability to translate poetry into pure cinematic sensation. The themes of distance, desire, and departure are not explained but experienced. Like a ship slowly leaving the harbor, the film invites viewers to surrender to movement and uncertainty, discovering beauty in the space between departure and arrival.

With the addition of Naval Ode, Whush continues its commitment to showcasing daring, artistically ambitious works that expand the possibilities of cinema. It is a film to be watched with attention, felt with the body, and remembered long after the final image fades.

https://www.whush.com