We didn’t listen to what this film needed and what we wanted to stand for as authors of this film. It was hot there, and not much happened, It was an old guy who liked to read, smoke, cook, and live a calm life, but we wanted it to be much more than this. Desert Stars is about living your life to the fullest. About the ridiculously short period between birth and death. The approaching heat, the universal, far-distant, white light ball. Our first edits were naive, forced films merging voicer over bits together until we felt like that was a digestible story about tent making. But it never came to a point where it delivered a feeling. As I said, this is not the film we intended to make. But the version you see here is the best we can do. But it's a teacher for us and maybe for some others, it can be a teacher too.

In the end, the song „Heaven’s Doorway“ by our friends Club Valley from Johannesburg, delivered the soundtrack for Laurence’s story. After hearing it for the first time a few weeks ago I thought “This symbol of a „doorway“, a „gate“, „something to go through“, that's the kind of vibe our film needs.” The grungy guitar perfectly symbolizes the heat for me. The contrast between what we hear and what we see is another factor why it resonates so much I think. Hearing Nigel from Club Valley sing “Maybe one day, I'm gonna be someone” and seeing Laurence taking a swim in the ocean, tells quite nicely where many of us are at. We all want to be happy and live as fulfilled and healthy human beings, but we are full of thought, fear, and shame. Always thinking that one day, one day we will be free from all of that. One day I will arrive. Doing the thing we are destined to do and being appreciated for that. But nothing will come if you don't act now. And Laurence told us, we just did not listen.