An honest, fun and tender travelogue that ran away with the Best Film award.
For the 14th Edition London Surf / Film Festival there was one movie that united judges and made their challenging job just that little bit easier. That film was Kingdom of the Evening directed by Clint Davis staring the ever-stoked Basque charger Kepa Acero and Morocco’s style-master Snoopy.
The South West premieres of Kingdom of the Evening take place as part of LS/FF’s Best of the Fest nights at the Lighthouse Cinema in Newquay on the 5th March and at Outside Devon on the 7th March.
https://londonsurffilmfestival.com/best-of-the-fest-a-very-special-evening
We caught up with award winning director Clint Davis to find out more.
Hi Clint, I’m curious to know when and how you and Kepa first met?
I met Kepa through a mutual friend of ours, Ali Elamine. When Kepa was traveling around Lebanon for his project Arcadia couple years ago, Ali was his guide and he’s pretty much the guy who started the surf scene in Lebanon. Around that same time, I was in pre-production for my first short film, VONA, in Türkiye. I was talking to Ali about the project, and he mentioned that Kepa Acero would be perfect for it. So he put us in touch and vouched for me.
I grew up watching Kepa during the era when he was one of the first surfers documenting his travels around the world. So of course, he was the right person. He’s someone who genuinely appreciates being in a new place, who doesn’t panic at the high possibility of getting skunked, and who understands that sometimes the real reward is just the experience itself… especially in a place, at the time, where hardly anyone surfs.
Luckily for us, we scored.
We loved VONA – it was a huge hit and screened at festivals across the world including LS/FF , but where did the idea for Kingdom of the Evening come from?
One day Kepa and I were talking about what to do next, throwing around places, stories, possibilities. Somewhere in that conversation, Morocco came up. I grew up there and in the Middle East, and still live in Morocco today, so it’s always close to home for me.
That’s when Kepa told me about a road trip he once did down the west coast of Africa. Along the way, somewhere in southern Morocco, he met a 15-year-old local kid named Yassine, the same Yassine who would later become the infamous SnoopyStyle everyone knows today. Kepa admired his surfing, his raw stoke, and the way he carried himself. They shared waves and moments that stayed with him long after the trip ended.
Kepa said he’d always wondered what became of him. He even had archive footage from when they first met. And right there, it felt like we had all the ingredients for something special, a reunion story almost two decades in the making. So we decided to go for it.
The film has a slightly irreverent style and humour. Who decided on the creative style?
Haha, I guess I’m just turning into a grumpy old guy.
But honestly, while the film is about a reunion, it’s also about change and what it feels like to watch a place you love transform over decades. I grew up around that coastline, and I’ve seen it shift in ways that are beautiful, chaotic, and sometimes hard to accept. So yeah… that slightly irreverent tone probably snuck into the narration without me even realizing it, or maybe I did... I suppose that’s what happens when you care about something for a long time, you can’t help but have opinions.
Getting film projects off the ground, let alone made, is tough endeavour. How long did the film take to make and what were the challenges along the way?
Pre-production lasted about a year. Then we had 14 intense days on the ground, all together, shooting on location. Post-production stretched another five months after that. Most of the challenges we faced are actually in the film, that was kind of the point. The chaos, the missed swells, the tension, the waiting… it’s all real.
If I had to name the biggest challenge? Probably just making sure everyone showed up on time. (Still working on that one.) But honestly, those small frustrations, the delays, the unpredictability, they’re what shaped the story. Without them, it wouldn’t have been the same film.
You can really feel the energy in relationship and in the search and that’s reflected in the film. What, for you, were the highlights of the project?
I don’t think there was one single moment that stands out above everything else. The whole trip, the process, the ups and downs, was special. Just having that crew together meant a lot.
Seeing Kepa reunite with Yassine after all those years was powerful, but it was also really meaningful having Ayoub Abouizza there. Ayoub and Kepa have their own history going back nearly two decades as well, so it wasn’t just one reunion, it was layers of reconnection. Old friendships, new friendships, different generations all in the same lineup. That kind of energy doesn’t happen every day.
There were plenty of memorable moments, some that made it into the film and some that didn’t. A few scenes I really loved ended up on the cutting room floor, which is always tough, but maybe I’ll share those later so people can see a bit more of what we experienced together.
Kingdom of the Evening screens as part of Best of the Fest Thursday 5th March at the Newquay’s Lighthouse Cinema, Cornwall and Saturday 7th March at Outside, Devon. See you there!
www.londonsurffilmfestival.com/best-of-the-fest-a-very-special-evening/
