El Día del Pez

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Note of intent

Through a Nikkei friend of the family, my father enrolled us –my brother and me- in a school from the Japanese colony. Almost finishing University, my brother went to Japan. The economical situation in Peru was quite uncertain and the idea of working during one or two years didn’t seem that wild. But he came back deported from Japan. This was fourteen years later, and my father had died a couple of weeks earlier. I had gone to Cuba to finish my studies and couldn’t assist to the ceremony either. The motivations to make this film are personal. 

Synopsis

The life of Fernando, a peruvian immigrant, is apparently monotonous. He works extra hours in a Japanese factory and visits Izumi on some weekends. She is a dancer in a nightclub. But when the illegal business he carries with another immigrant is discovered, Fernando is deported to Peru where he also feels a stranger, despite it being his country. The Day of the Fish, a strange celebration made in both countries, will make Fernando take conscience of the place he occupies in the world.

Visual concept

Fernando’s inner and fragmented universe is the essence of the film. Therefore, the camera is crucial to create a tension between what surrounds him and his inner space. Fernando wanders around the verge of marginalization -both in Peru and in Japan. That’s his condition; he’s a constant stranger, overwhelmed by the place and its rules. On the map of Fernando’s unmovable face, even the tiniest movement is telling us something.