In Todos Santos, a small town of six thousand souls in Mexico, a community of fishermen gather every day on Punta Lobos beach and engage in shark fishing. They are people tempered by the sea, handing down the work from father to son. A community made up of rituals and traditions, which rejects tourism as a new source of income, despite the difficulties due to competition. A community, however, plagued by problems of drug, addiction and violence, despite the strong spirit of solidarity and brotherhood. The largest fishing family, is the Salvatierra family, of which Angel is a member.

Angel, however, seeks a path other than the sea. Raised without the opportunity to study and forced to work as a child to support his mother, he vents his anger in alcohol and crack cocaine. Addiction leads him to be violent with his wife and children. Angel tries to get sober and put the pieces of his life back together, but the specter of loneliness and the visceral call of the beach and the past are indelible ghosts.

This project was born from a question: how do global economic transformations impact small communities, the social fabric, and people? It is from the desire to explore these social and human dynamics that we set out on our research, which led us to get to know the shark fishing community of Todos Santos and get in touch with their stories and lives. Our goal is to tell, through a "small," circumscribed and local story, a set of themes of much broader scope, linked first to Mexico and its socio-political issues today, and then also universal, because they are "human".

In the contradictions that inhabit the fishing community, their relationships and their lives, a set of issues emerge that can affect many communities in Latin America as in Europe. For us, "Todos Santos" is a film made up of people and men who live deep contradictions on a daily basis, forced to choose between their future or their identity.

Director
Gabriele Licchelli e Santiago Rapahel Priego
Story
Gabriele Licchelli e Santiago Rapahel Priego
Screenplay
Gabriele Licchelli e Santiago Rapahel Priego
Director of photography
Francesco Lorusso
Film Editor
Cast and characters

Angel Salvatierra, Alonso Salvatierra, Popeye, Israel Salvatierra, Pedro, El Tieso Salvatierra, El Condor.

Organizzatore generale
Producer
Production
con il sostegno di Film Commission Torino Piemonte - Piemonte Doc Film Fund - sviluppo giugno 2023
Last update: 30 August 2023