A fishing community is frozen in time after the disappearance of a local hero in this unsettling and austerely poetic tale
The strange and striking landscapes of coastal Galicia in northwest
Spain are the backdrop to this beguiling landscape film, less a conventional narrative and more a haunting prose piece, tying together ancient superstitions with fears of a coming environmental apocalypse.
The central story concerns the disappearance of a local fisherman, Rubio, who believed a sea monster was responsible for the community’s dwindling catch and set out to hunt it down. Rubio is something of a local hero who, we are told, has saved more than 40 people from drowning. In his absence, the town almost literally comes to a standstill. His story is recounted in voiceover by various townsfolk, whom we see standing stock still in the landscape, as if frozen in time.