I mean, it is Friday afternoon and, do you really prefer to read about Lady Gaga surfing, or the ultimate beauty pageant in Mexico? That’s what I thought, PV Pulse is different, at least that's what we try to be. We like to think that we have certain style, and Alamar (To the sea) is more our kind of thing.
Alamar’s official website has the following synopsis of the film: “Before their inevitable farewell, a young man of Mayan roots and Natan, his half Italian son, embark on an epic journey into the open sea.” It reminded me of a quotation in one of Lars Von Trier films that says something like this: "There are only two kinds of stories. Those when somebody arrives to a place, and those when somebody embarks on a trip."
The film is a modern tale about the relationship between a father and his son, but also about an alternative way of understanding life and the world. The kind of movie that suggests plenty of questions, but gives no answers.
For all of us that live at the sea, it speaks eloquently. As it reminds us of the reasons of why we moved to a place like this in the first place. Reasons that we tend to forget after a stressful day at the office, or a long cue at Wal-Mart.
This is not to say that we all should leave the modern life and go back to nature and eat whatever we fish. But it is a refreshing view of nature that, in the words of New York Times’ Stephen Holden “has an overarching mythic resonance that evokes fables from Robinson Crusoe to The Old Man and the Sea.”
It is also a Mexican movie, successful around the world, and with an unbelievable list of awards. It had the bad luck of being produced in the same year than González Iñarritu’s Biutiful, so it didn’t compete for the Oscars but, if anything that makes it only more desirable.
When writer, editor and director Pedro González-Rubio was asked if Alamar was a feature film or a documentary film, he unpretentiously responded: “I think of it as just a film.”
Awards:
Best Film Morelia 2009
Audience Award Morelia 2009
Tiger Award (Best Film) Rotterdam 2010
Best Film Miami 2010
FIPRESCI Toulouse 2010
Jury Prize Uruguay 2010
Best Film Montreal Latinamerican Film Festival 2010
Best Film BAFICI (Argentina) 2010
SIGNIS Prize BAFICI (Argentina) 2010
Best fotography Lima 2010
Best Film Santiago 2010
Best Director Santiago 2010
Golden Shaki Award Nara (Japan) 2010
(Best Film)
For a longer review of the film you can go here or here, but I suspect that after watching this trailer you won’t need anything else.
