A praia da esperanza (‘The Beach of Hope’)

Synopsis

A story inspired by the dramatic disaster of the Prestige, which devastated Galician coasts in 2003. The sad reality of those days is embodied by means of a fantastic element: the presence of a mermaid, Sunia, who lives with Raquel since she decided to spend the winter at home with her in the city; in exchange she agrees to tell her a story every night. The news that a ship has sunk near her beach takes the whole family there. Amidst the fetid smell, the dead birds and the devastation caused by the ecological disaster, all of them come together to clean the sand. Sunia, who is desperate for news from her kind, jumps into the sea and at daybreak they find her lifeless body. Shortly afterwards, Raquel joins the long human chain made up by school children on that beach spelling out the word LIFE, to symbolically defend the coast which has been attacked by the oil slick.