In Lucía Flórez’s feature doc project, a boy from a fishing family and a pioneering female marine scientist (Alejandra) set out to tag whale sharks, the world’s largest fish, for the first time in Peru. Together they forge an unlikely bond, reshaping both the fate of the species and the boy’s future.
The 80-minute Peruvian/Spanish co-pro was presented at BarcelonaDocs by the director and producer Claudia Chávez Lévano of Peruvian outfit El Taller.
We first meet Ever as a shy little boy who has just lost his father, who finds refuge in the ocean. After Alejandra’s team invites him on an expedition, they name one of the smallest sharks ever recorded in the world after him. But as time passes, the sharks begin to disappear from the coast. Three of the six tags that the team managed to place on the first batch of whale sharks are found near ports, an indication of negative human interaction with the fish, which is banned under Peruvian law.
Little by little, Ever begins to drift away as financial imperative kicks in. His family needs him to provide as a fisherman, and his childhood dream of becoming a marine biologist is compromised. By the end of the film, the sharks return to the coast, and Ever graduates at high school, but he still finds himself suspended between the two worlds, tradition or discovery, wonder or survival, with the future still open ahead for him.
“Our film explores the clash between tradition and change at a critical moment of the Pacific Ocean, one of the most biodiverse ecosystems,” said Flórez. “Our story reveals what is at risk. Protecting the whale shark, a vital umbrella species, becomes key to preserving an entire way of life.”
“We started working on this film in 2023. Wwe are currently in production, and we want to complete the film by the end of 2027. We think that by connecting a young protagonist’s journey with a scientific and conservation story, we invite audiences to see the complexity of how we relate and coexist with the ocean. Where there are no easy answers, there are no villains or good people, and…being a fisherman can be actually just as revolutionary as being a scientist.”
Ever and the Sharks is budgeted at €518,000, with €161,000 currently in the coffers. In Barcelona, producer Chavez was looking to hook a sales agent and funders, as well as distributor and broadcast interest.
Support among the professional panel was very strong, and Flórez was asked what role the local community would play in the film. “The community is key, because Ever comes from that background, and the relationship that the fishing communities has had historically with fishing and whale shark is a key element in the story,” she responded. “Whale sharks were believed to kill people…so Ever’s role, jumping in the water and swimming with [them], is like a metaphor, and a bridge between changing that old paradigm to a new one.”
She also underlined that Ever and the Sharks was not a natural history film as such, more a personal “search.” “We want to keep that ghostly, mythological figure of the shark that also speaks to a lot of the cosmology of Latin America, and magical realism, and try to play with that,” Flórez said.
The Whickers’ Jane Mote was particularly enthused by the project. “What the film does is engage younger people in the environment, and that’s the only way that we protect ourselves for the future,” she said.
