A wave of emotion

A family’s survival of the 2004 tsunami has inspired Spain’s highest grossing film, says Pádraic Killeen

THE Impossible is in Irish cinemas this weekend. Starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, it is the most successful film in Spanish history, the harrowing story of a real family who survived the Indian Ocean tsunami of Dec 2004, which killed 230,000 people.

Though The Impossible alters the ethnicity of the protagonists — the onscreen family are British instead of Spanish — it tells the true story of Maria Belon, her husband Enrique, and their three sons. Maria, a doctor, was involved in the screenplay, and she was by the side of director Juan Antonio Bayona while the film was being shot in the actual locations in Thailand.