The Sea (2000 film)

El mar
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Agusti Villaronga
Produced by	Isona Passola
Written by	Antonio Aloy Biel Mesquida Agustí Villaronga
Starring	Roger Casamajor Bruno Bergonzini Antónia Torrens Ángela Molina Simón Andreu Juli Mira
Music by	Javier Navarrete
Cinematography	Jaume Peracaula
Edited by	Raúl Román
Release date	14 April 2000
Running time	113 Minutes
Country	Spain
Language	Catalan

The Sea (Catalan: El mar) is a 2000 Spanish film directed by Agustí Villaronga, starring Roger Casamayor. It is based on a novel by Blai Bonet. The plot, set in Mallorca, follows the fates of three childhood friends traumatized by the violence they witnessed during the Spanish Civil War. Ten years later, they are reunited as young adults in a sanatorium for TB patients. The film won the Manfred Salzgeber Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

In the summer of 1936, the violence of the Spanish Civil war reaches a small village in Mallorca. Four children: Andreu Ramallo, Manuel Tur, Pau Inglada and a girl Francisca are witness to the execution of leftists at the hands of pro-Franco villagers. In a desperate act of revenge, Pau, whose father has been killed the previous day by the lead executioner, plans to avenge his father's murder torturing Julià Ballester, the son of his father's killer. His idea is to force the boy to drink castor oil. However, things go wrong when the boy—Julià Ballester—taunts them and Pau becomes enraged. He brutally kills Julià by bashing his head against a rock and then stabbing him in the throat. Unable to deal with what he has just done, Pau commits suicide jumping inside a hole on a cave. The remaining children: Andreu, Manuel, and Francisa are witnesses to these tragic events.

Over a decade later, Ramallo, now a cocky young man, is sent to a tuberculosis sanatorium on Mallorca to recuperate from the initial stages of the disease. Ramallo, like all the tubercular and lung diseased patients, has to live in a large room, dormitory style. However, as a patient's health dwindles and they are expected to die, they are sent to a private room numbered 13 for their final days. Ramallo with his boastfulness and stories of sexual prowess attracts the admiration of the other patients particularly from Galindo, the youngest of the group.

Ramallo is shocked to find that Manuel Tur, his childhood friend, is also a patient. A pale and drawn man, Manuel has found solace to his health predicament in religion. Even more shocking is the sight of the beautiful Francisca, now a selfless nun, nursing the sick at the hospital. Alcantara, the brutal caretaker and Carmen, his unhappy wife, run the place. Shortly after his arrival, Ramallo receives the unwanted visit of Don Eugeni Morel his former boss in smuggling contraband. The well to do middle age Morel, has also sexually abused him for long time. Morel's visit makes Ramallo furious and from then on, he tries to disassociate himself from the crime lord. As a reminder than he can count only on himself, Ramallo gets his own name tattooed on his chest by Alcantara, the hospital's maintenance guy. In the clinic, Manuel has a pet cat that he dotes on. In a fit of anger Ramallo kicks the cat almost to death. Manuel gives the dying animal back to Ramallo to put it out of its misery. They bury the animal together and reconcile remembering their childhood friendship.