WARNING: THIS TEXT HAS SPOILERS. If you want to continue, it is at your own risk!
I watched "Contracurrent" on Saturday afternoon after that annoying post in the early hours of the morning because of my different holiday. I left the cinema feeling like I had just seen the most sensitive film of my life.
I wanted to make that funny pun saying that "Undercurrent" is a Peruvian film, because after all, it really is a Peruvian feature film. And if the cinematography in this country is as good as this film, I can only say one thing: we need to pay attention to it.
I'm going to try to talk a little about the film here without spoiling the surprise and without giving away the game right away, but I'll go ahead. The synopsis they've been putting out there doesn't do the story much justice. "Countercurrent" tells the story of fisherman Miguel and his double love life.
Mariela, to whom he is married, is expecting his child. And hidden from the local inhabitants, Miguel lives a torrid romance with the photographer and artist Santiago, who has been visiting the village since he was little.
The film begins with the death of Miguel's cousin and the funeral ritual of that community. The inhabitants there believe that if the body is not properly offered and thrown into the sea, the soul of the deceased will not rest.
The ritual scene is important because it sets the tone of the film and gives the gay couple room for the drama of the story. Without wanting to tell you, but already telling you, I say that long before halfway through the film, Santiago dies. Drowned. He is carried against the current.
His troubled soul remains here. And only Miguel is able to see it. And it is curiously in this part of the story – in a happy metaphor about the death of fear – that the couple lives their romance more intensely and more beautifully. Highlight for the photography and the plasticity of the scenes throughout the film, but also and especially from then on.
The macho pressure to live up to other people's expectations is increasingly present and constant in the life of Miguel, who has a son and a family. How to overcome and resolve this issue? And how can you say goodbye to a love that has already left without giving up the happiness you feel, precisely because it is easy?
The drama proposed in the script – masterfully written and directed by Javier Fuentes-Léon – addresses precisely these questions. The characters are extremely human in their relationships and feelings and the practical solution proposed as a resolution is surprising and makes us leave the room full of hope, despite all the regrets.
Riptide is definitely worth watching. And that.
