Marineros in tierra

In November 2002, an oil spill from the wrecked Prestige reached the northern coasts of Spain. At Laxe, a village of 2 500 inhabitants on Galicia’s northern coast, the Lemas family have been fishermen from father to (grand)son. From winter 2002 to autumn 2003, three generations of seamen-as all the villagers-go from anger to despair, then finally return to the sea. This ecological disaster devastated an entire culture. “We knew that to tell the human side of this story and enter into their world, we had no choice but to live with our characters. We ate in their homes, drank in their bars and contemplated the sea with them for hours.” (the filmmakers) “Inside, our souls are crying out, but it doesn’t show.” (Abreu Lemas, aged 47) “If it’s painful not to go to sea for a week, just imagine it for seven months!” (Angel Lemas, aged 19)