“Another bad day!” This is what it sounds like when Catalan fishermen meet. The fish die-off and the pollution in the greater Barcelona area hit them hard. Ramón Costa has seen dramatic changes in his long career. This doesn’t refer to the fact that he made it from rowing boat to motorboat owner – no: Only six of the 100 fishing boats of his native village of Badalona are left. One of them belongs to Ramón. But he, too, is thinking about giving up his small family business, especially since he is worried about his eldest son. Opening a beach bar would be more profitable. The younger son, having at last emerged from adolescence, encourages him, that’s true. But junior is a stubborn smart-aleck.
All these problems accumulate in the narrow space of the fishing boat when father and son go out to sea. The film has all the ingredients of a short novel, telling a story of restless men, the death of tradition and the disease of civilisation and revolving around a charismatic main character: Ramón is a passionate storyteller and a father who makes touching efforts to stay connected to his sons, even if they grew up in a completely different age than he did.
Lars Meyer

Gonzalo is a farmer of the old school who lives with his family in Castile. To be called an agronomist would probably be an insult to someone like him. His way of managing things is in many ways the opposite of the all-devouring economisation of all areas of life. But he only chose this existence as a resistance fighter half-freely – the other half was forced upon him. First of all by a tradition that’s effectively in his bones. Then by a deep rootedness in the soil that nourishes him. And finally by a sturdy philosophy that makes him say such simple and clear things like: “When everyone was throwing money out of the window and lighting fires with banknotes, our kind was considered outdated and backward. Now that most people have lost everything the others are no better off than us, and we are more or less the same.”

Empathetic “Schadenfreude” und a surrealist sense of humour are essential parts of Gonzalo’s rustic world. Günter Schwaiger’s affectionate long-term observation of this world could also be seen as cinematic medication to strengthen our immune system against the temptations of consumerism and agricultural capitalism – defences our mind urgently needs.

Ralph Eue