NATAN AND JORGE IN ALAMAR

Portrait of three generations bonding by a coral reef[b]

Pedro González-Rubio, who is 34, was born in Belgium of Mexican parents and is a frequent visitor to India, where he spent a year in his teens. He studied media in Mexico City before attending the London Film School. He has been the cinematographer for several films, among them [i]Born Without (2007) by Eva Norvind. Toro negro (2005) was his documentary debut. Alamar won a Tiger Award at Rotterdam. Working alone except for his sound man Manuel Carranza and another photographer to photograph the underwater diving, González-Rubio captures the intimacy of a father and his young son in an idyllic setting in this short film.

A cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) they call Blanquita becomes a house pet when Natan's father takes him to spend the summer by the sea, ala mar. They live in a hut on stilts and spend most of their time fishing with the boy's grandfather Nestór. Banco Chincharro is the richest coral reef site in Mexico and part of the second largest coral reef barrrier in the planet," an after-title says. This is where Jorge Machado, his father, and his little boy Natan are, and dive to catch big crabs. Jorge, 30-something, is learning how to line fish at sea from his father, and they catch big fish easily. Natan comes along on all their outings and takes to it all like a fish to water.

Jorge and Natan's mother, Roberta Palombini, were in love but after Natan was born she found Jorge's world too remote, and they divorced and she took Natan to raise him in Rome. In a prelude we see her get him up, wash him and dress him to go and stay with his father, all the while talking to him in Italian. When he's in Mexico, he speaks Spanish with father and grandfather, learning new words all the time, remarkably fluent. The minute he is back with his mother he instantly begins speaking Italian again. This symbolizes the boy's seeming ease in adjusting to the two different worlds. This is a dream vacation, an idyll, for Natan and his father, who lets him share in everything and obviously adores him. After Blanquita goes off on her own again he takes Natan to look for her. He plays with Natan like a big brother but instructs and corrects him like a father. His own father is an easy-going, benevolent fisherman, still youthful, loving his life. Jorge is a lean and supple man of Mayan heritage with long flowing hair and an earring, a modest naturist who wears shorts but otherwise is naked and knows the names of species. Who is he? What is his usual life?

Alamar doesn't explain everything. It shows this is an interlude in Natan's life. When Jorge tells him it's over but he will be with him wherever he is he quietly cries. People have discussed whether this is a narrative feature or a documentary, concluding that it is both or neither, that it doesn't matter. It's not quite a feature, because it doesn't add enough of a made-up story. It's not quite a documentary, not the earnest social and political kind, investigating a subject or lecturing us on it. Gonzáles-Rubio has said in interviews that he gave Jorge and Natan "tasks" to do, each day, and then filmed them. So he was the organizer of their activities. The whole thing in Alamar is the experience of Nathan with his father and grandfather; the film was made to show the special rapport between Natan and Jorge that the director had spotted earlier. The film lets us revel in the naturalness, the simplicity, and the pleasure the three generations experience together. There's nothing but good humor and affection, never an unkind word spoken. When Jorge coaxes Blannquita to climb on his arm and then passes her onto Natan's arm, it's a magic moment, however momentary, of patience, gentleness, and sharing among generations and species that we can carry with us as Natan will carry his memories of the summer with his father with him.

The film is not about how the coral reef, a protected area where some 40 fishermen live, may be threatened by encroaching urbanism and pollution. It's not about the economic details of Jorge's or his father's life. It's not about the pull between Natan's urban life in Rome, where he says "they don't fish" because "the fish are already in the store," and his back-to-nature idyll or idylls (are there more?) with his father in Mexico. But if these are lacks of context, they aren't bothersome because González-Rubio has so memorably captured the intimacy and joy of Natan and his "papi" and their physical grace together.

Alamar has been bought by MK2 for release in France.* It was produced by Jaime Romandia (Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light, Battle in Heaven and Japón, and Amat Escalante’s Los Bastardos and Sangre). It was introduced at Venice and shown at Rotterdam and Toronto and won the Ibero-American Competition Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Miami Film Festival and the Best Film Award at Buenos Airesl. It will open commercially July 14 at Film Forum in New York and in March was screened at the BAM Rose theaters. Film Movement is making Alamar available on DVD simultaneous with its commercial run in New York.

Seen as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival 2010, where it won the New Directors Award, which includes a prize of $15,000. In July, starting the 30th, Alamar will have a theatrical release by the San Francisco Film Society starting July 30, 2010 at SFFS Screen at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas.

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*The French critical response (1 Dec. 20110 theatrical release) was mixed: Allociné press rating 2.9.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.