Ceyx & Alcyone
Directed by Samuel BESTER
France · 2026 · 14 min · Ancient; Based on book; Emigration/Inmigration; Historical; Artificial intelligence; Sea; Death; Low budget
Submitted to RTV International Film Festival 2026Synopsis
A parallel between Ovid's myth and the migrants drowned in the Mediterranean. The same indifferent waves keep swallowing lives, leaving families without a body or a grave. The myth endures because it tells the truth of love and the sea.
About the film
Ceyx leaves his devoted and beloved wife Alcyone by the sea despite her tearful pleas, only to drown in a violent storm while whispering her name. Warned of his death by a dream sent by the gods, Alcyone rushes to the beach at dawn and finds him floating on the waves. Her grief is then complete and irreversible. The film draws a line between Ovid's myth and the thousands who today drown crossing the Mediterranean. The same indifferent waves Ovid described with such poetic terror still swallow lives, leaving families suspended in unbearable uncertainty, often denied even a body, a grave, an epitaph. The myth endures because it tells the truth about love, loss, and the absolute indifference of the sea. What has changed is only our capacity — and our collective failure — to intervene.
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RTV International Film Festival — Inaugural Online Edition · 2026