Ocean of an Old Man

Indian filmmaker Rajesh Shera's deeply moving film is set on a small island in an archipelago off the Indian coast during the aftermath of the catastrophic 2004 tsunami. British schoolteacher Thomas (Tom Alter) has survived the deluge, but his wife and young daughter perished under the waves. Thomas (the only named character) attempts to restart his school, but many of his students were lost in the disaster, and although he tries to console the surviving classmates, the unsettled atmosphere continues to persist after the arrival of a government functionary who signals that the local population will need to be relocated. Thomas then becomes convinced that some of his missing charges are still alive somewhere in the island chain, and he embarks on a quest to locate them. Much of the film's power stems from the subtle yet devastatingly effective performance by Alter as the grief-stricken protagonist. An American actor whose career has been based in the Indian movie industry, Alter brilliantly blurs the line between optimism and desperation, ultimately imbuing his role with a tragic majesty. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)