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Small in scale but large in heart, writer-director Javier Fuentes-León’s “Undertow” (Contracorriente) is a story of a bisexual triangle in a small Peruvian fishing village. The modest yet affecting twist is that fisherman Miguel, whose wife is expecting, remains attached to Santiago, his dead lover. The sea’s a place for sorrow, and for the comforting presence of ghosts, it turns out. Some of the same emotional tug of “Ghost” shimmers into play. A 2010 Sundance World Cinema Audience Award winner, “Undertow” takes advantage of a luscious, picturesque setting in what seems deeply conservative territory. The result is more wistful than weepy. With Cristian Mercado, Manolo Cardona, Tatiana Astengo. 100m. (Ray Pride)
“Undertow” opens Friday at Music Box.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
