Alamar

If one is in the right frame of mind, and I was, Alamar is a lovely way to spend 73 minutes. Though strictly speaking a narrative film, it has the feel of a documentary, and some wonderful images of lives lived on a coral reef off the Mexican coast.

What plot there is to Alamar is dispensed quickly. Jorge (Jorge Machado) is a Mexican who has married an Italian woman. They have a son, but the relationship sours and they break up. Before the boy, Natan (Natan Machado Palombini) is to take up permanent residence with his mother, he spends some time with his father and grandfather in a fishing village on the Mexican coast.

For a boy of about six or seven, it's a wonderful vacation. Mostly it's on the water, catching all sorts of sea creatures, from lobster to barracuda. Natan learns to snorkel, and befriends an egret whom he calls Blanquita. His grandfather (Nestor Marin) is a wise old salt, who says that to live on the sea is to live happily. He likes to spend his nights drinking coffee and looking at the stars. Sounds good to me.

Though there is no plot to speak of in this section, the aura of familial bond is powerful. We can feel the love this father has for this boy, and the wonderment that the boy is experiencing as he interacts with nature. The director is Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio, and I don't know the background of this (judging by the names, it would seem that the pair are real-life father and son), but whether these are performances or simply behavior matters not.