Flying Fish

PEZ VOLADOR

Spain, 2022, 13'  

The flying fish has been an animal filled with meanings since ancient times. Thanks to its capacity of moving both through water and air, many cultures identified it as a symbol of the connection between diverse elements. The filmmaker chose this totem like figure as a guide to look at the world around us, above and below the surface of our seas, with different eyes. If at the beginning watching human bodies immersed in water evokes a feeling of sensory pleasure, then if we watch the camera’s reverse shot from the sky, we begin to perceive the distortion caused by mass tourism on the beaches. Another immersion, another discovery: a world of floating garbage, nets and plastic bags seem to replace marine vegetation with a pervasive, menacing presence. We are thus faced with a sort of archaeology of the future, a colourful taxonomy of the different types of plastic debris that are invading the seas and will outlive the people who made them by thousands of years. Flying Fish is a journey in the underwater world that unravels the indelible traces of the growing impact of humankind upon the ecosystem.