“Atalaya” means watchtower in Spanish. It’s also the name of the Chilean islands where, in 1998, debris was found from the boat belonging to the filmmaker’s seafaring father, Gerry Roufs, lost at sea. It’s also a key word of the book written by her mother, Michèle Cartier, which recounts the search she undertook to find him. ATALAYA is the filmmaker’s pilgrimage to Cape Horn, camera in hand, memories flowing through her mind; an essay on her reflections on that inescapable grief, on how memory is affected by the presence of absence, and on how life naturally follows its course. Short synopsis : ATALAYA is a personal essay in which the filmmaker explores the state and the places connected with the death of her seafaring father, Gerry Roufs, lost at sea in 1997 during the Vendée Globe, a single-handed non-stop round the world yacht race.
