A dive, the noon sunlight cuts through the water. The air in both lungs will have to be enough to rip the abalone from the rocks on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. With no aid from air tanks or any other tools to enable underwater breathing, the body as a whole is summoned to its limit. In Wagu, a fishing village in the Ise Peninsula, Matsumi, Mayumi and Masumi dive everyday not knowing what they'll find. Underwater, their delicate bodies turn into those of sea hunters. The Ama-San have been diving like this in Japan for over 2000 years.

Dir. Cláudia Varejão - 112min - 2016 - Portugal - In Japanese - Subtitles available in: English, German, Italian, Spanish.

"Ama-San is a bewitching dive into both family and national history alive with the symbiotic relationship the ama have with their environment;" - Four:Three Film

"Something along the lines of a perfect harmony reigns in this feature- length film that mixes three generations, a world that seems free of all forms of conflict and a possible representation of happiness, the natural finality of human life. Characters out of another time, and a film of dazzling modernity." - Visions du Reel

"This kind of unfiltered anthropological study can be mesmerising and there are some lovely sequences here, not just of the women diving in the olive-green depths but also moments where they’re just hanging out with their families, playing with fireflies or making supper. " - Guardian