"If you change every piece of a boat... is it still the same boat?" Kino Lorber has unveiled the official US trailer for an acclaimed indie film from the tiny island nation of Malta titled Luzzu, which first premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year where it won a Special Jury Prize for non-professional lead actor Jesmark Scicluna. Set on the island following an old school fisher, a man risks everything to provide for his wife and newborn son by entering Malta's black-market fishing industry. Scicluna is a real life Maltese fisherman, and co-stars with Michela Farrugia, David Scicluna, Frida Cauchi, and Uday McLean. The new film "heralds the arrival of writer-director-editor Alex Camilleri, a gripping storyteller in the neorealist tradition of early Luchino Visconti and the Dardenne brothers as well as his mentor Ramin Bahrani, a producer of the film." This is one of my favorite discoveries...
- 8/17/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Sundance Acting Award winner Jesmark Scicluna and Michela Farrugia in Luzzu. Director Alex Camilleri: 'Jesmark’s performance is so subtle. It's amazingly soulful, he had a soulfulness that just came through' Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute/Inigo Taylor
Director Alex Camilleri's debut, Luzzu, is a neorealist drama about a fisherman (Jesmark Scicluna), who is facing choices about his family's fishing tradition on their luzzu boat after the birth of his son. The film - shot in Marsaxlokk in Malta - blends non-professional and professional actors and is a gripping and heartfelt consideration of the changing way of life on the island as the fishermen face the realities of commercial fishing, the changing face of the European Union and black market activity. Proving that non-professional actors can be every bit as good as those who are trained for the role, Scicluna won the Acting Award at Sundance, where the film had its world premiere.
Director Alex Camilleri's debut, Luzzu, is a neorealist drama about a fisherman (Jesmark Scicluna), who is facing choices about his family's fishing tradition on their luzzu boat after the birth of his son. The film - shot in Marsaxlokk in Malta - blends non-professional and professional actors and is a gripping and heartfelt consideration of the changing way of life on the island as the fishermen face the realities of commercial fishing, the changing face of the European Union and black market activity. Proving that non-professional actors can be every bit as good as those who are trained for the role, Scicluna won the Acting Award at Sundance, where the film had its world premiere.
- 2/3/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The sad spectacle of Brexit over the last five years has led many casual news-watchers to over-idealize the European Union, even as its uniform industry regulations and injunctions weigh harshly on a lot of innocent parties. A view from the other side comes in “Luzzu,” an honest, affecting slab of working-class portraiture, altogether bracing with its thorny labor politics and salty sea air.
Taking a close, tough view of a Maltese fisherman increasingly driven from the trade he loves by mounting economic strain — atop an unenviable pile-up of personal crises — this satisfying debut feature from Maltese-American writer-director-editor Alex Camilleri also places a welcome cinematic spotlight on an island nation more frequently seen on screen standing in for other Mediterranean or North African locales. Following a premiere in Sundance’s world cinema competition, “Luzzu” looks likely to be a new benchmark in Malta’s little-heralded film industry.
Camilleri’s previous credits...
Taking a close, tough view of a Maltese fisherman increasingly driven from the trade he loves by mounting economic strain — atop an unenviable pile-up of personal crises — this satisfying debut feature from Maltese-American writer-director-editor Alex Camilleri also places a welcome cinematic spotlight on an island nation more frequently seen on screen standing in for other Mediterranean or North African locales. Following a premiere in Sundance’s world cinema competition, “Luzzu” looks likely to be a new benchmark in Malta’s little-heralded film industry.
Camilleri’s previous credits...
- 2/2/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The list of films shot or produced on location in Malta is a short one, with the island’s shimmery Mediterranean beauty primarily the backdrop for swords-and-sandals epics. A rare locally-produced film that is also about Malta itself, and features actual Maltese people, “Luzzu” marks the debut of director Alex Camilleri with a vérité fishing drama populated by nonprofessional actors. , who also work with locals on their films, “Luzzu” is beautifully shot, if at times emotionally restrained, in its centering around a man who’s occasionally hard to read. But it boast a true discovery in the casting of Jesmark Scicluna, a real fisherman who plays a version of himself, and here playing a struggling parent trying to eke out a living along the docks.
A “luzzu” is a traditional Maltese fishing boat, and a veritable 20th-century relic compared to the more advanced trawlers of today. Jesmark’s luzzu, an...
A “luzzu” is a traditional Maltese fishing boat, and a veritable 20th-century relic compared to the more advanced trawlers of today. Jesmark’s luzzu, an...
- 1/29/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
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