''Undertow'' ( es, Contracorriente) is a 2009 internationally co-produced
romantic drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by
Javier Fuentes-León and marks his directorial long-feature debut. Initial financing came from Germany and France with additional financing from Peru. The film shot in
Cabo Blanco, Peru, won the World Cinema Audience Award in the Dramatic category at the 2010
Sundance Film Festival in the U.S.A.
Other Audience Awards included Cartagena, Montreal, Miami, Chicago, Utrecht, Lima, and Galway, as well as Jury Awards in Madrid, San Francisco, Seattle, Toulouse, and Philadelphia. It received a nomination as Best Latin American Film at the 2011 Goya Awards in Spain.
The film was also selected as the Peruvian entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
83rd Academy Awards but it did not make the final shortlist.
Plot
Miguel (
Cristian Mercado) is a young fisherman of Cabo Blanco, a small village in northern Peru with specific traditions regarding death. He is married to Mariela (
Tatiana Astengo
Tatiana (or Tatianna, also romanized as Tatyana, Tatjana, Tatijana, etc.) is a female name of Sabine-Roman origin that became widespread in Eastern Europe.
Variations
* be, Тацця́на, Tatsiana
* bg, Татяна, Tatyana
* germa ...
), who is pregnant with their first son, but he also has a secret affair with a male painter called Santiago (
Manolo Cardona
Manuel "Manolo" Julián Cardona Molano (born April 25, 1977) is a Colombian actor.
Personal life
Cardona was born in Popayán, Cauca, Colombia on April 25, 1977. At the age of seven, Cardona's family nicknamed him "Manolo," which later beca ...
) who he meets for trysts at a deserted cave on the coast.
Santiago accidentally drowns at sea, and his ghost returns to ask Miguel to find his body, in order to bury it with their village's rituals. Miguel eventually finds Santiago's body in the water, but does not tell his ghost of the discovery. Meanwhile, the villagers discover nude paintings of Miguel at Santiago's house, fueling a rumour that they were having an affair. Mariela hears the rumours, confronts Miguel about them, and upon hearing him confess, she goes to her mother's house with their newborn child.
Miguel returns to look for the body of Santiago, but he finds that the current has taken it away. Mariela eventually returns home, but then the body of Santiago appears in the nets of a fishing boat. Miguel decides to claim the body of Santiago for a burial at sea as his lover wanted. He takes the shrouded body of Santiago to sea, but a second after the body is committed to the waves, the ghost of Santiago reappears for a last time, caressing Miguel, who returns home alone in the sundown.
Cast
*
Cristian Mercado as Miguel
*
Manolo Cardona
Manuel "Manolo" Julián Cardona Molano (born April 25, 1977) is a Colombian actor.
Personal life
Cardona was born in Popayán, Cauca, Colombia on April 25, 1977. At the age of seven, Cardona's family nicknamed him "Manolo," which later beca ...
as Santiago
*
Tatiana Astengo
Tatiana (or Tatianna, also romanized as Tatyana, Tatjana, Tatijana, etc.) is a female name of Sabine-Roman origin that became widespread in Eastern Europe.
Variations
* be, Тацця́на, Tatsiana
* bg, Татяна, Tatyana
* germa ...
as Mariela
Production
''Undertow'' had been gestating since 1996, when the director Javier Fuentes-León wrote the very first scene. Originally conceived as a supernatural revenge thriller about a fisherman having an affair with a prostitute, Javier decided to change it after coming out of the closet himself, in an attempt to explore more interesting themes and material.
Critical reception
The film received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reports that 88% out of 32 critics gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.3/10. Manohla Dargis from ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' praised the director's ability to show powerful relationships between the characters, particularly focusing on the complexity of Miguel's feelings for Mariela, which she called "gratifying". David Wiegang from the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'' also gave the film a positive review, saying that the "film's accomplishments are many, but not the least is its ability to take a human story and frame it as a parable, without losing a bit of credibility or irresistible heart."
Pam Grady from ''
Boxoffice Magazine
''Boxoffice Pro'' is a film industry magazine dedicated to the movie theatre business published by BoxOffice Media LP.
History
It started in 1920 as ''The Reel Journal'', taking the name ''Boxoffice'' in 1931 and still publishes today, with ...
'' wrote “Sensual and romantic with a heavy dose of the supernatural and populated by indelible characters.”
Bob Mondello from
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
wrote “Undertow, for all its narrative tricks, has been given the rhythm and texture of real life, as well as emotional undercurrents that are haunting.”
Awards and nominations
;For ''Undertow''
*2009: Won Sebastian Award at the
San Sebastián International Film Festival
The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; es, Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, eu, Donostia Zinemaldia) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in ...
*2010: Won Audience Awards for "World Cinema – Dramatic" category at the
Sundance Film Festival
*2010: Nominated for Grand Jury Prize for "World Cinema – Dramatic" category at the Sundance Film Festival
*2010: Won Audience Award for Ibero-American competition at
Miami Film Festival
*2010: Nominated for Golden India Catalina for "Best Film (Mejor Película)" at
Cartagena Film Festival
The Cartagena Film Festival ( es, Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias), or FICCI, is a film festival held in Cartagena, Colombia, which focuses mainly on the promotion of Colombian television series, Latin American films and short ...
*2011: Nominated
GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film – Limited Release
*2011: Nominated for Goya for "Best Spanish Language Foreign Film" at
Goya Awards
The Goya Awards ( es, Premios Goya) are Spain's main national annual film awards, commonly referred to as the Academy Awards of Spain.
The awards were established in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sci ...
See also
*
*
List of Peruvian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
*
References
External links
''Undertow / Contracorriente'' Official website*
{{Peruvian submission for Academy Awards
2009 films
2000s coming-of-age drama films
2009 directorial debut films
2009 romantic drama films
Films directed by Javier Fuentes-León
2009 LGBT-related films
2000s Peruvian films
2000s Spanish-language films
Peruvian romantic drama films
Peruvian LGBT-related films
LGBT-related romantic drama films
LGBT-related coming-of-age films
Male bisexuality in film
Magic realism films
Shoreline Entertainment films
Colombian drama films
Gay-related films