The Third Wave (2007)

Four volunteers travel to Peraliya, Sri Lankan after the 2004 tsunami, and their planned two-week journey becomes a year of heartbreak and rebirth.

Director:

Alison Thompson

Writer:

Richard Belfiore (additional writing)

Stars:

A.P. Darmedesa, Bruce French, Oscar Gubernati

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
A.P. Darmedesa	...	Himself
Bruce French	...	Himself
Oscar Gubernati	...	Himself
Donny Paterson	...	Himself
Alison Thompson	...	Herself

Storyline

A volunteer film. Four independent volunteers with little money and no experience race off to volunteer in tsunami ravaged Sri Lanka . They meet up at the Colombo airport by fate, rent a van, fill it with supplies and start driving down the coast to see where they can help. They stumble into Peraliya, a tribal village which has been totally destroyed by a 40 foot wave overturning a train and killing over 2500 people. No-one is there helping so they set up a first aid station and find themselves in charge of a refugee camp with over 3000 people. A two week journey turns into a year long odyssey of heartbreak and hope as the villagers slowly begin to turn against them when the worlds donated tsunami money doesn't materialize. The volunteers push on through the death threats and break every rule in the 'Disaster Aid Books'. Everyone is needed : no skills required.

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Plot Keywords:

volunteer | tsunami | overwork | cross cultural friendship | cross cultural relations | 

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Taglines:

WANTED:Volunteers... no experience required!

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Genres:

Documentary | Adventure | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA Sri Lanka

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 September 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

La troisième vague

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Endless Films, Ozone Pictures, Pictures Ozone

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After the 2010 Haiti earthquake disaster, director Alison Thompson flew to Haiti with Sean Penn and Oscar Gubernati and ran a field hospital and refugee camp of over 70,000 people for 6 months.

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Quotes

Donny: I walk around at home and nobody gives a f... , I come here and everybody cares its quite humbling really.

User Reviews

This film had 5 sold out shows at Tribeca FF it was hard to buy a ticket!

I read about this film in the New York Times Tribeca pull out and tried to get tickets but every show was sold out. I finally got three to the last screening and was very happy I made the effort. The film had a deep impact on my two other friends and we talked about it for 3 hours over dinner that night and then later for a few more hours!! It stays in your head. The message really got to us and made us think about helping more in the future. We are so stuck in our busy lives idolizing actors and sportsmen as our heroes and they aren't really real heroes. The real ones are in docs like this. After the screening the filmmakers talked in a humble way of spreading the volunteer message to the world and how everyone was needed to help including bankers, lawyers and actors and singers and musicians and every type of job. Kudos to Morgan Spurlock for finding this gem, he was already a hero of mine for helping me lose 55 pounds due to eating junk food!