The charming young Natan is the accidental product of a holiday romance between the Italian Roberta and the Mexican Jorge. Theirs had been a happy affair at first, but as often happens with holiday romances, one which did not last in the end. In Alamar, Natan visits his father once more before he leaves for Rome with his mother.

 

Jorge and his father live in a wooden house that is built on poles in the lagoon of the almost excruciatingly beautiful Banco Chinchorro. The entire area is exuberantly bursting with tropical wild life. The three men spend their days doing chores, idling, fishing and eating. Jorge and the able-bodied Nestor dive to considerable depths, armed with a simple snorkel, flippers, a harpoon and tiny swimming trunks, to catch lobsters and fish. Afterwards they fry part of what they’ve caught, and sell the rest to passing boats. Leftovers are fed to the crocodiles and to the tame white house bird Blanquita (‘Whitey’), who prances around as if she is the lady of the manor.

 

Alamar is so not much about food as it is about life in general. Eating, however, makes up a very prominent part of this life. The three generations of men seem to live in complete harmony with nature and this way of life is tenderly passed on from father to son to grandson. Along with the unfathomable splendour of the Caribbean surroundings, this makes for a delightful film. 

 

The film is special because it balances on the edge of being a documentary, while in actual fact it is fiction. Director Pedro González-Rubio only employed a specialised camera crew for the (nature documentary quality) underwater footage. The rest of the footage he filmed himself, aided by a sound engineer. The story is real, the people in the film are real and the fish they catch and eat are real. That it is possible to live like this in our current world is a comforting thought for fast-paced city dwellers. Would you like to escape your hectic life for a little while? Don’t hesitate to be lured by the rhythm of the reef and go see Alamar.