Ama-San

The Portuguese director, Claudia Varejao, brings us the funny Japanese 'ama', a group of women who find themselves between a millenary tradition and the modern ages and technology, which both puts their occupation at risk.

The 'ama' are 'the women of the sea' (translation from Japanese). They are underwater fisherwomen who do their jobs without any object to breath, only using ancestral rituals. A practice which is even more amazing if we take into account that the average age of these women is 67. Thereby Varejao follows the life of three generations of the 'amas', who risk their lives to get pearls but also abalone, a very coveted seafood, in their last attempt to grapple a tradition and a past on the edge of extinction.