SONHOS DE PEIXE    came from my fascination with the lives of the fishermen of Baia Formosa, a small village in the Northeast coast of Brazil. Witnessing their vein-popping efforts of pushing boats in water, watching them cut fish, following them on their fishing trips; learning about the perils entailed by diving for lobster was the film’s main source of inspiration.

To make their trips worth it, the fishermen of Baia Formosa scrounge for lobster as deep as 25-40 meters and some as deep as 60 (!) meters, spending hours and hours (!) underwater searching the ocean floor. The rudimentary equipment they use often breaks: in a panicked dash, they shoot to the surface, their lungs “exploding”, and their blood flow blocked by nitrogen bubbles – leaving them paralyzed, dead. Throughout years many of the fishermen of Baia Formosa (BF) have died, while many others have become paralyzed.
I visited fishermen’s homes, got to know their families, sat with them at the dinner table. Seeing their families live in comfort is the fishermen’s biggest “consolation prize” for all the dangers they face when fishing: a roof over their heads, food on the table, and a TV set – the modern corner stone of every BF household, the only “real” contact with the outside world for most of the villagers. Every house in BF got one: even village’s poorest-looking shack crowned with the umbrella of a parabolic antenna. Every night, the entire village is glued to their TVs to follow a most recent soap opera. The new TV-educated generation is shifting their attention away from fishing to other professions, away from BF. The screaming contrast between the danger of diving and the comfort of a couch in front of a TV-set gave birth to a story set in BF: the story of a young diver infatuated with a girl who’s obsessed with TV. I knew that I had found a truly unique setting. Casting real fishermen was the only way to truthfully document the unique and fragile universe of the locale: the leather-like texture of their skin, the crevices of the wrinkles carved out by the never-ceasing wind at sea, the square rock-calloused palms of their hands, their postures and the way they walk defined by decades of labor at sea, their Zen-like calmness - these were the indispensable physical qualities guaranteeing SONHOS DE PEIXE the authenticity it deserved.

All actors (with the exception of two) are residents of BF. Working with non-actors was the approach from the moment the script was conceived. Non-actors are by far superior in their on-screen presence than any theatre-school trained, film-industry actors. They are capable of the degree of naturalism that can’t be taught. Filming non-actors was the fundamental integrity-guarding condition in the making of SONHOS DE PEIXE.
Making of SONHOS DE PEIXE was the most important experience of my life.

Kirill Mikhanovsky, Director