For Agatha, Christmas triggers sadness. She yearns for freedom laced with imagination, when magical creatures were part of a game played with friends in the forest. The death of her parents after a 1978 Christmas Party still haunts Agatha. She sees similarities between her parents' unhappy marriage and her own. The Black Madonna statue from her childhood visits Agatha, escalating her anxiety and goading her towards change. The discovery of a mysterious portal offers Agatha the possibility of resolving her grief and saving her crumbling marriage.

Remembering Agatha

Filmed primarily at sea onboard an active fishing trawler, Ishmael is a blending of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick with a personal story of a battle with terminal illness.