Blue Christmas
Directed by Marina Aparicio
Spain · 2026 · 12 min · Disease; Family; Childhood; Death;
Submitted to RTV International Film Festival 2026Synopsis
This Christmas, the grown-ups have told Perla that she is going to lose her mother to an illness called cancer, but she knows that isn’t true. What her mum is really doing is transforming into a mermaid to return to the sea she came from.
About the film
Perla suspects these might be the last Christmas holidays she spends with her mother. Everyone says she has an illness called cancer — but that’s a zodiac sign, and zodiac signs are harmless. Besides, no crab would ever hurt her, because during their summers by the sea, Perla has seen how her mum treats them like royalty. No, Perla knows the truth. She can see it through a magic glass her mother gave her, so she could watch: her mum is transforming into a mermaid. All the signs confirm it. That’s her true nature, and that’s why she has to leave — she must follow the call of the sea. Perla feels it too, deep inside, whenever they spend their summers by the shore, making crafts to decorate the Christmas tree in winter. Grandma Cordelia was a mermaid who gave up her nature for love, just like her mother did, and now Perla must make things right, even if Dad keeps talking about chemotherapy, doctors, and other ugly things. But Dad doesn’t understand magic — and Perla and her sister Nerea do; they know it’s possible to dive back into the sea through the living-room window.
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RTV International Film Festival — Inaugural Online Edition · 2026