Luzzu (2021)
Country: MALT
Technical: col 94m
Director: Alex Camilleri
Cast: Jesmark Scicluna, Marta Vella, David Scicluna
Synopsis:
A Maltese fisherman finds that his traditional, small scale manner of fishing is no longer sustainable. Competing pressures on him, familial, political and financial, find their emblem in his ancestral 'luzzu', placed in dry dock for repair at the start, lovingly restored by the fishing community, and finally scrapped in favour of a freezer van.
Review:
The opening scene of the protagonist fishing all day and into the night recall Hemingway's old man and the sea, but thereafter the film is all but beached in one of those follow-shot studies of personal struggle beloved of low-budget film making. Jesmark's limited range of expressiveness and articulacy further frustrate our happiness with the outcome, which is naturally meant as a cry for preservation from well-intentioned but unfortunate EU regulations. As an interesting footnote, there has since been a move towards safeguarding decommissioned luzzus for use in the tourism industry.
Country: MALT
Technical: col 94m
Director: Alex Camilleri
Cast: Jesmark Scicluna, Marta Vella, David Scicluna
Synopsis:
A Maltese fisherman finds that his traditional, small scale manner of fishing is no longer sustainable. Competing pressures on him, familial, political and financial, find their emblem in his ancestral 'luzzu', placed in dry dock for repair at the start, lovingly restored by the fishing community, and finally scrapped in favour of a freezer van.
Review:
The opening scene of the protagonist fishing all day and into the night recall Hemingway's old man and the sea, but thereafter the film is all but beached in one of those follow-shot studies of personal struggle beloved of low-budget film making. Jesmark's limited range of expressiveness and articulacy further frustrate our happiness with the outcome, which is naturally meant as a cry for preservation from well-intentioned but unfortunate EU regulations. As an interesting footnote, there has since been a move towards safeguarding decommissioned luzzus for use in the tourism industry.
Country: MALT
Technical: col 94m
Director: Alex Camilleri
Cast: Jesmark Scicluna, Marta Vella, David Scicluna
Synopsis:
A Maltese fisherman finds that his traditional, small scale manner of fishing is no longer sustainable. Competing pressures on him, familial, political and financial, find their emblem in his ancestral 'luzzu', placed in dry dock for repair at the start, lovingly restored by the fishing community, and finally scrapped in favour of a freezer van.
Review:
The opening scene of the protagonist fishing all day and into the night recall Hemingway's old man and the sea, but thereafter the film is all but beached in one of those follow-shot studies of personal struggle beloved of low-budget film making. Jesmark's limited range of expressiveness and articulacy further frustrate our happiness with the outcome, which is naturally meant as a cry for preservation from well-intentioned but unfortunate EU regulations. As an interesting footnote, there has since been a move towards safeguarding decommissioned luzzus for use in the tourism industry.