The Sharks isn’t about fish, not really. This is yet another coming-of-age story, generic in its story, but with specific details that could only have come from writer-director Lucía Garibaldi’s real life.
Rosina (Romina Bentancur) is a bored teen, too curious for her own good. It’s a lazy summer in their forgotten beach town. As she drifts through the days, she searches for something to occupy her time. Some days that’s joining in the local hubbub over a possible shark sighting and some dead marine life. Other days that’s torturing her older sister and younger brother. But when she attracts the attention of Joselo (Fabián Arenillas), one of her dad’s older landscaping employees, it consumes her whole world.
Yes, it’s more than a little uncomfortable that this adult and child are talking about and engaging in sexual acts – one scene prompted multiple walkouts at my screening – but it’s treated with a frankness that doesn’t diminish what’s happening, but never leers at it either. It also doesn’t make the guy out to be anyone special. He’s just a gross meathead who all but ignores her when their hook-up doesn’t go according to plan. But that attention – common to her sister and her more active friends, but foreign to her – ignites something in her.
Rosina retaliates by stealing Joselo’s beloved dog. It’s a pretty heartless thing to do, but she at least takes care of her while she hides him from her family (which doesn’t need any more stress or another mouth to feed). But when the pup goes missing, she finds herself reaching out to him again.
The Sharks is yet another sexually frank coming-of-age story. You can find those at a lot of festivals. But what makes this one stand out, even if only slightly, is the little nuances that had to be gleaned from real life: the grandmother wrapping all her couch cushions in a roll of industrial plastic wrap, the older sister almost losing an eye, being used as guinea pigs as her mom tries out new treatments for her in-home salon. It’s personal stuff, and Bentancur brings it to life.
