Luzzu

Hardworking new father Jesmark, played by a real-life Maltese A hardworking Maltese fisherman, Jesmark is faced with an agonizing choice. He can repair his leaky luzzu – a traditional, multicolored wooden fishing boat – in the hopes of eking out a meager living at sea for his wife and newborn son, just as his father and grandfather did before him. Or he can decommission it in exchange for an EU payout and cast his lot with a sinister black-market operation that is decimating the Mediterranean fish population and the livelihoods of the local families who depend on it. Luzzu won a Sundance Jury Prize for its nonprofessional lead actor Jesmark Scicluna, a real-life Maltese fisherman, and heralds the arrival of writer-director-editor Alex Camilleri. His gripping film operates in the neorealist tradition of Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rosselini, and the Dardenne brothers and calls to mind the work of his mentor Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart, The White Tiger), also a producer of the film.

“A neorealist telling in the tradition of the Dardenne brothers.” – Ryan Lattanzio, Indiewire

Official Selections: New Directors/New Films, BFI London Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

“Malta’s views are arresting, but the images Camilleri chooses would never be found in a travel brochure. In his subtle, vérité approach, he captures something special — not one man’s crisis, but a community’s culture.” - The New York Times

“A moving tale of real-world strife... part observational drama, part social thriller.” – The Hollywood Reporter