Juan Ignacio Fernández Hoppe’s documentary tries to pin down a true record of the father he lost aged eight, but the struggle to find it is what compels attention

What are the pieces that make up a life? This thorny question lies at the heart of Juan Ignacio Fernández Hoppe’s riveting, emotional documentary, whose structure resembles a detective story. When Hoppe was only eight years old, his father Juan José Fernández died on a lonely beach in the Uruguayan resort town of Salinas. Along with the official authorities, Hoppe’s psychologist mother accepted the cause of death to be drowning, but the film-maker himself has his doubts.

While this death might have been the jumping-off point, Hoppe’s inquiry fascinatingly expands, as it takes in the years that led up to that one fateful night. Against a white background, objects once owned by Hoppe’s father resurface in the film’s opening scenes, their presentation echoing the scene of an archaeological excavation. A rusty key; a piece of crumpled paper; a tape recorder. Each memento offers a fragile clue to Fernández’s final hours: a man with musical talents and ambitions, Hoppe’s father was also plagued by depression, which ultimately led to the breakdown of his marriage and a dependence on prescription drugs.