Juan
Antonio Bayona, a Spanish director as his name equally suggests, decided to
base his new movie on a true story of a Spanish family who survived the Indian
Ocean tsunami in 2004. Pictures are still freshly printed in our collective
memory, which makes it quite risky to adapt the natural disaster on screen.
Nevertheless, Bayona didn’t seem to be interested in the spectacular rendering
of the wave. Instead of causing tension, he concentrates on the characters, their desperation and the courage to hold on. Above all, the focus lies on
hope. The hope to survive, the hope to find back the people you’ve lost and
hope to recover the life you’ve had before. However, although Bayona is less
interested in the spectacular effects of the disaster, some parts are
rendered in a ‘Spielbergian manner’, which makes us memorize this misfortune even longer than we thought it would.
The
story starts when a family flies to Thailand to spend their Christmas holidays
under the sun. What was meant to be a pleasant and idyllic trip turned out to
be a disaster for each one of the family members. When the 98-foot-high wave
destroys the houses, lifts cars and causes complete chaos, Maria (Naomi Watts)
and her oldest son (Tom Holland) are separated from Henry (Ewan McGregor) and
their two younger boys, Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast).
Once the huge wave crossed the coast the plot is basically limited to the
questions ‘Who will survive?’ and ‘Will they find each other back?’.
However, I feel like it's not the first movie
that primarily focuses on American tourists as victims of a natural
disaster. What happened to the local people and how are they able to move on
after they’ve lost everything they’ve ever known? At first it seems quite
pretentious but we have to bear in mind that the movie is based on a true story
of the Belon family who wanted to spend Christmas in Thailand. A story in which
everyone seemingly impossible survives is often regarded as commonplace.
Nevertheless, once we see it through, the intention is not so much to
reconstruct the horror they’ve been through, but we’re somehow invited to use
our imagination and think about these people’s future. How will these survivors
ever be able to place the trauma and how will they remember it, if they are
ever willing to recall this gruesome event in history.
Juan
Antonio Bayona, a Spanish director as his name equally suggests, decided to
base his new movie on a true story of a Spanish family who survived the Indian
Ocean tsunami in 2004. Pictures are still freshly printed in our collective
memory, which makes it quite risky to adapt the natural disaster on screen.
Nevertheless, Bayona didn’t seem to be interested in the spectacular rendering
of the wave. Instead of causing tension, he concentrates on the characters, their desperation and the courage to hold on. Above all, the focus lies on
hope. The hope to survive, the hope to find back the people you’ve lost and
hope to recover the life you’ve had before. However, although Bayona is less
interested in the spectacular effects of the disaster, some parts are
rendered in a ‘Spielbergian manner’, which makes us memorize this misfortune even longer than we thought it would.
The
story starts when a family flies to Thailand to spend their Christmas holidays
under the sun. What was meant to be a pleasant and idyllic trip turned out to
be a disaster for each one of the family members. When the 98-foot-high wave
destroys the houses, lifts cars and causes complete chaos, Maria (Naomi Watts)
and her oldest son (Tom Holland) are separated from Henry (Ewan McGregor) and
their two younger boys, Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast).
Once the huge wave crossed the coast the plot is basically limited to the
questions ‘Who will survive?’ and ‘Will they find each other back?’. 
However, I feel like it's not the first movie
that primarily focuses on American tourists as victims of a natural
disaster. What happened to the local people and how are they able to move on
after they’ve lost everything they’ve ever known? At first it seems quite
pretentious but we have to bear in mind that the movie is based on a true story
of the Belon family who wanted to spend Christmas in Thailand. A story in which
everyone seemingly impossible survives is often regarded as commonplace.
Nevertheless, once we see it through, the intention is not so much to
reconstruct the horror they’ve been through, but we’re somehow invited to use
our imagination and think about these people’s future. How will these survivors
ever be able to place the trauma and how will they remember it, if they are
ever willing to recall this gruesome event in history. 