Watching the bonding of Jorge and his son, Natan, in “Alamar,” will bring feelings of love and longing to any adult who watches Pedro Gonzales-Rubio’s remarkable little film, playing this weekend as part of the Webster University film series. It’s beautiful, sensitive and honest, a rare combination.
Jorge (Jorge Machado) is a fisherman in Mexico, working the Banco Chinchorro, a 25-mile-long coral reef in the Caribbean. A former relationship with an Italian woman (Roberta Palombini) resulted in a son (Natan Machado-Palombini), now five. They parted amicably because he wants to live at the seashore and she wants to live in Rome, certainly not an arrangement conducive to weekend visits. But Jorge wants to spent a final summer at sea with his son and she agrees.
The film opens, by the way, with Palombini discussing the relationship, and her memories, and if there ever was truly a love child, Natan is it.
Gonzales-Rubio is truly a one-man band in this project. He produced, wrote, directed and edited. He was the cinematographer and the production designer, and he shows a warm, confident touch in every aspect. It’s a semi-documentary as he takes us into the ocean, into the cabins on stilts where the fishermen live, into the small boats where they work, onto then beaches, into the gutting of fish for sale and the cooking of it for their dinner.
Natan is fearful, and seasick, when they first go out, but Jorge holds him and comforts him, and also teaches, guides and protects him. Jorge, tanned and usually shirtless, with long hair and a mustache, takes to his outdoor life with ease, and he lives in peace with nature. Of course, he advises Natan on how to do this, even interacting with a wandering white ibis that they name “Blanquita.” An elderly fisherman, Matraca (Nestor Marin), works with them, and the two men live with the small boy in a cabin on stilts. A short-wave radio, a propane-fired stove, a coffee pot and some hammocks provide the necessary comforts. Jorge refers to his as his father, but he is a friend, adviser and mentor, not a biological relative.
As the film progresses, Natan grows. He learns to swim and to use a mask when he goes under the water, avoids the alligators, investigates the crabs, tries to befriend Blanquita but learns that wild things cannot always be tamed and that change is the only constant. Natan will return to his mother, and to Italy, and to a different life, and Gonzales-Rubio doesn’t need soppy sentimentality to show this. We knew it all along, in this exciting film about growing up.
Alamar (To the Sea) opens tonight and runs through the weekend at the Winifred Moore Auditorium of Webster University
—Joe