The Caribbean island of Holbox is again threatened by El Niño this year. Its inhabitants already know from bitter experience the damage that can be wreaked by the storms El Niño brings in its wake. Everyone on the island deals with this threat in their particular way.
Efrain and Angel, two coastguards keeping the horizon under careful watch, kill the many waiting hours making bets and indulging in speculation. For Karateka, an environmental activist, El Niño has deeper meaning. He observes in minute detail how, as nature becomes restless, human and animal behaviour subtly change. He secretly hopes that El Niño will strike: a lesson in humility for mankind.
Jan Van de Velde let himself be seduced by the Latin-American pace of life, and filmed life on the island in the shadow of El Niño in a very personal way, a way it would never be filmed by the Hollywood studios.
