This quiet but turbulent coming-of-age narrative tells the story of Maya and Finn, two teenagers who wake up one morning to find their mother has left them alone. Bewildered and parentless, they struggle to come to terms with their new reality.

Directed by the London-based, Dorset-bred filmmaker and photographer Martha Treves, this film, the film captures loss and loyalty - looking at how young people deal with times of change and uncertainty.  

‍Martha: At the very first stages of conception, To the Sea was rooted in the environmental problems that threaten our younger generation’s future. With the current climate crisis, I found myself asking the question – who has control over our future? It seemed as if the older generation had lived blindly with no afterthought of the catastrophic effects this modern lifestyle will have on our planet and our future. I was angered that we, the young, would suffer for their ignorance, so I wrote a story about two children and an absent mother.

The children are abandoned – unsure of the mother’s whereabouts – with few means to look after themselves. But as I delved into my characters – their hopes, dreams, worries and histories – I realised that the anger I felt towards the older generation was not really anger at all; it was fear. Fear of change, fear of loss, fear of everything that we can’t control. So the film set out to explore how young people navigate themselves in times of uncertainty.