Apnea
2012 · 15m · Chile
Directed by Jeremy Hatcher
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, family
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tense
Daniel spends a hot spring vacation with his family and, while swimming, learns that his parents are divorcing. An incident with his younger brother brings all his frustrations to the surface.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Divorce-at-the-pool sounds like every Sundance reject from 2010, but Hatcher refuses the maudlin beats you're bracing for—there's something genuinely unsettling about how the water becomes both sanctuary and trap, and the film trusts that unease more than catharsis.
A disciplined execution of the coming-of-age form that understands how spatial constraint (the hot spring, the family unit) can deepen rather than limit emotional resonance; the film sits comfortably in a lineage of intimate family dramas but with a restraint that feels earned.
The genius move is using the brother as catalyst instead of confidant—that shift in relationship dynamics, played through a single moment of confrontation, pivots the whole film from 'kid learns parents are splitting' into something about how trauma redistributes within families, and Hatcher commits to it without sentimentality.