The Waves

Alberto Morais’s second film charts the journey of an 80-year-old widower, Miguel (Carlos Álvarez-Nóvoa), from his home in Valencia to the French town of Argelès-sur-Mer, close to the Spanish border, where he spent time as a refugee in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War almost 60 years earlier. Miguel has a car that doesn’t look as if it will survive the journey, a form of narcolepsy that sends him to sleep at regular intervals and a friend, Fernando, in Barcelona who he can’t seem to get hold of. Miguel is also haunted by memories of the Civil War and its scars are evident across the landscape he encounters en route to France. The Waves, winner of both the FIPRESCI and the Golden St George prizes at the Moscow Film Festival, is about coming to terms with a past that has left an indelible mark on the present. Carlos Álvarez-Nóvoa gives an award-winning performance as Miguel, a figure often lost in thought, whose journey awakens a series of memories that reverberate across the texture and mise-en-scène of this memorable feature. –BFI