Twelve-year-old Reyboy lives an idyllic childhood in an isolated fishing village where people catch their share and share their catch. But by summer's end, Reyboy will have to leave to study in the city. Until then he makes every swim, meal and starry sky count, as the seconds slip away. Filmmaker Venice Atienza and her subject share a special familiarity in conversations that translate into poetry, sprinkled over stunning sunsets and beach bonfires. Imagining a world without greed, pollution and selfishness, Last Days at Sea reflects Reyboy's innocent perspective and immerses the viewer in the richness, beauty and joy of home—a place that lives inside us all, as something both real and intangible. This precious record of how we take pieces of the past wherever we go triggers memories like Proust's madeleines, with Atienza's biko and Reyboy's solar system of stones as successors. For Reyboy, leaving home "is like being wounded and not feeling the pain," but we feel his pain. Angie Driscoll

Co-presented with Toronto Real Asian International Film Festival

World Showcase program sponsored by