杏吧原创

Film

Directed by Richard Ladkani

National Geographic

released in cinemas 27 September

THE documentary Sea of Shadows is the story of the world鈥檚 smallest porpoise, the critically endangered vaquita, which is hiding out in the extreme south-western corner of its territory in the Sea of Cortez off Mexico. It isn鈥檛 a story that will end well, though Richard Ladkani, whose 2016 Netflix documentary The Ivory Game was shortlisted for an Oscar in the 89th Academy Awards, has made something that is very hard to look away from.

This isn鈥檛 an environmental story, but a true crime. No one wants to hunt the vaquita. The totoaba fish, which shares the vaquita鈥檚 waters, is another matter. It is known as the cocaine of the sea, a nickname that only makes sense once you learn that Mexican drug cartels have moved into the totoaba business to satisfy the Chinese luxury market, where the fish鈥檚 swim bladders are said to have rare medical properties.

Illegal gill nets that catch the totoaba also catch and kill vaquitas. The but has let the problem get out of hand. Law-abiding fishing communities are ruined by blanket fishing bans while the illegal fishers operate with near-impunity.

Late on in the film, there is CCTV footage of a couple of soldiers with car trouble. They ask for help from a passing motorist, who shoots one of the soldiers dead and drives away. Meet Oscar Parra Aispuro, the totoaba padron of Santa Clara. (I said you couldn鈥檛 look away; I didn鈥檛 say you wouldn鈥檛 want to.)

鈥淪ome locals believe the vaquita is a myth dreamed up by a hostile government to bankrupt the poor鈥�

Things are so bad, a scheme is dreamed up to take the vaquitas out of the ocean to live in captivity. It is an absurdly desperate move because virtually nothing is known about the vaquita or its habits. Some locals believe the creature is a myth dreamed up by a hostile government to bankrupt the poor: how鈥檚 that for fake news?

Project leader Cynthia Smith explains the dilemma facing the vaquita: 鈥減ossible death in our care or certain death in the ocean鈥�. She knows what she is doing 鈥� she is a senior vet for the US Navy Marine Mammal Program 鈥� but no one has ever tried to capture, let alone keep, a vaquita before.

Sea of Shadows won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in February this year; National Geographic snapped it up for $3 million. It is built around a collaborative investigation between Andrea Crosta, executive director and co-founder of (the hero-detectives of The Ivory Game) and Carlos Loret de Mola, a popular correspondent and news anchor in Mexico, with an international audience of 35 million daily.

Crosta, de Mola and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society 鈥� their maritime partners in crime-prevention 鈥� are expert in handling and appealing to the media, and Sea of Shadows is, among other things, their slick calling card. From the film鈥檚 鈥渨hodunnit鈥� structure to the way content is squeezed to release a steady drip-drip of information, Sea of Shadows is pure Nat Geo fodder. If you don鈥檛 like that channel much, you won鈥檛 like this.

The rest of us will be perched on the edge of our sofas, in thrall to drone-heavy cinematography that owes not a little to Denis Villeneuve鈥檚 2015 thriller Sicario, rocked by a thumping score full of dread and menace, and appalled by a story headed pell-mell for the dark.

Can the vaquita be saved? When Sea of Shadows was made in 2018, there were fewer than 30 in the ocean. Today there are fewer than 10.