Film Reviews

Alamar

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• Details: Mexico / 73mins (G).

Alamar falls into tricky territory - yes, it's a touching film about the bond between father and son, and man and the sea, but how can you go about recommending a film where nothing happens? I'm not about to recommend anything but if what you read below sounds like something you'd be interested in, Alamar won't disappoint.
Although Jorge (Machado) and Roberta (Palombini) are from different worlds - she's a city career girl, he's from the wilds - they fell madly in love, married and had little Natan (Machado Palombini). Some years later, however, Jorge and Roberta's worlds moved too far apart and they are about to split. Jorge is granted one last weekend with Natan before his son is to move to Rome with his mother. Jorge takes Natan fishing with Jorge's father Nestór (Marín) and they spend time together painting his shack, wrestling, eating and washing the boat.
Written and directed by Pedro González-Rubio, who has only a co-directing credit on 2005's documentary Toro Negro, Alamar has a breezy calm about it. When he's not pointing the camera at his three protagonists, there are endless shots of beautiful sunrises, sunsets and deep green seas to wallow in. Like its characters, where González-Rubio blurs the lines between fiction and reality by casting real life family members, there is a certain tranquillity to the film, which never attempts to tell any kind of story - that would feel like too much hassle in this laid back world. Instead, the director's fly-on-the-wall documentary style is content to shoot whatever the three get up to.
But where the story is missing, heart is to be found. Jorge and Natan wrestle on the floor of the shack, they play peek-a-boo, and feed a friendly bird. González-Rubio resists the temptation to get stuck into teary dialogue (the conversations here are rudimentary) and when he does eventually, kind of, sort of, get round to it – when Jorge sits Natan down to explain that although he might not be around, he will remain his dad – it isn't the BIG scene you're waiting for. That might rob the audience of an emotional pay off but it's consistent with the story and the characters. The director knows when to call time, too: the short running time is perfect as any more would surely test the audience's patience.

Review by Gavin Burke