Undertow (2009 film)

Undertow (Spanish: Contracorriente) is a 2009 fantasy romantic drama film that marked the directorial debut of Javier Fuentes-León, who also wrote and produced it. Filmed in Cabo Blanco, Peru, the movie received its initial funding from Germany and France, with additional support from Peru.

At the 26th Sundance Film Festival, it won the World Cinema Audience Award in the Dramatic category, and it went on to earn audience awards at festivals in Cartagena, Montreal, Miami, Chicago, Utrecht, Lima, and Galway, as well as jury prizes in Madrid, San Francisco, Seattle, Toulouse, and Philadelphia. It was also nominated for Best Latin American Film at the 2011 Goya Awards in Spain. Peru submitted the film for consideration for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.

Plot

The story follows Miguel, a young fisherman in the small Peruvian village of Cabo Blanco, where traditions around death are strong. He is married to Mariela, who is pregnant with their first son, but secretly carries on an affair with a male painter named Santiago, meeting him in a deserted cave along the coast. When Santiago accidentally drowns at sea, his ghost returns to ask Miguel to find his body so it can be buried according to village rituals.

Miguel locates the body in the water but keeps the discovery from the ghost. Meanwhile, villagers find nude paintings of Miguel in Santiago’s house, sparking rumors of an affair. Mariela hears the gossip, confronts Miguel, and after he confesses, she leaves with their newborn child to stay at her mother’s house. Miguel goes back to retrieve Santiago’s body but finds it has been carried away by the current.

Mariela eventually returns home, but then Santiago’s body turns up in a fishing boat’s nets. Miguel claims it for a burial at sea, as his lover wanted. He takes the shrouded body out to sea, and just after it is committed to the waves, Santiago’s ghost appears one last time, caressing Miguel, who then returns home alone at sundown.

The cast includes Cristian Mercado as Miguel, Manolo Cardona as Santiago, and Tatiana Astengo as Mariela.

Production

The film had been in development since 1996, when Fuentes-León wrote the first scene.