Text by Nora Vasconcelos
Image: Patrimonio
Illustrationsof.com
It just happened to me. Although Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was launched in the UK in 2011, I’ve just had the chance to watch it and I found it not only interesting, but also really sweet in the way a young reach man who could have anything in the world, decided to go for his biggest dream, to bring live salmon into the Yemen and create over there, in the middle of the dessert, an “oasis” of lively waters filled with this particular upstream fish.
The movie, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, was based on a book under the same title, written by the British author Paul Torday, who found in this novel a way to express, and explore, his love for fishing and his interest for the Middle East.
The book, written with a more satiric style, attempts not only to talk about the dream of the young rich man who happens to be a prince, but alto to make some sort of fun of the ways of his own country.
The movie of course takes some of that, but it’s more focused on the romantic side of the story, an impossible dream that has to face uncountable challenges to become real, and even then, it need to find its own strength to remain alive; and the own challenges of the team who would have to believe in themselves and in the dream first, before realizing that it actually might be possible to be feasible.
The film of course, also goes for the romance among McGregor and Blunt, who, at the time they meet, are facing the challenge to make important decisions about their own love lives.
At the end, the story leaves a very comforting feeling that, every now and then, dreams actually can come true.
As for the author of this fantastic story, his way to writing becomes also an inspiration as he published this, his first novel, when he was 60, after a long life working as a businessman.
