The Beach of Enchaquirados

In the daytime, Vicky goes fishing out on the sea, in the evening she runs a little bar on the blustery beach of her small village in Ecuador. The silences, emptiness, and meager catches all feed into the sense of unfulfilled longing that pervades her life, but The Beach of Enchaquirados also glows with an irresistible and liberating warmth.

Social life in this fishing village drifts along in a delightfully serene manner with the camera watching on, in beautifully stylized shots and at an easy editing pace. Few words are necessary to capture the natural course of life here.

Vicky belongs to the local trans community, one where gender and sexuality are not strictly delineated, and she balances her physically tough work at sea with feminine elegance in her private life. The two worlds may seem diametrically opposed, but filmmaker Iván Mora Manzano captures them both with the same affection—from giggly flirting to candid conversations about an incomplete life, and from the deserted beaches to the lively carnival season.