Luzzu

Malta's official submission to 2022's Oscars is beautiful, authentic, simple and emotional. Story is interesting and in a simple beautiful way it tackles powerful topics like sacrifice, tradition and family. It's that kind of movies that say so much by saying almost nothing. Lead performance is superb.

LUZZU 2021 (BBCIPlayer) This is the first film I've ever seen (to my knowledge) filmed in and made on Malta.

In an interesting twist on EU fishing quotas. Coming from Kingston upon Hull, home of the largest fishing industry in the 1960s, long since decimated by restrictions and quotas by the EU

In this film Jesmark, a fisherman like his father before him, is struggling with lack of fish and too many restriction. The tag line is "A man risks everything to provide for his wife and newborn son by entering Malta's black-market fishing industry"

Fighting his guilt of having to change his ancestry we have a dilemma, whilst the expectations of his wife and her aspirational family put strain on their relationship and his friendships with other fisherman.

Does he decommission his boat and take EU compensation like so many others.

Overall its a good film, the story is slight, but the setting and its origins make it a worthy 6/10.

"Luzzu" starts innocently enough with a solitary fisherman plying his trade, and though it touches on a wide variety of big topics - fatherhood, tradition, working-class struggles, Brexit" as well as a thoughtful character study, it never loses the charm of the opening minutes. A story about a third generation Maltese fisherman, played by an actual Maltese fisherman, not only feels true, but has a warm vibe only good fiction can bring. You can almost smell the sea breeze.

Stamped with his baby footprint, "Luzzu" is the colourful family boat passed down for generations, that serious family man Jesmark Scicluna puts to sea on a daily basis. Trouble is the fishing industry is morphing into an unsustainable one, for the little guys anyway. A new born with special medical needs, and thus costs, puts a strain on the family, and Jesmark is asked to consider a career change.

Squeezed by big fish, various restrictions, and cutthroat, often illegal competition, this really is a lone man vs. The sea tale. While Jesmark's decision is a life altering one, and deftly describes the current political situation of many smaller European strugglers, it plays second fiddle to the personal trials of the defiant fisherman. A man of few words, he carries the weight of his world on broad shoulders, seeking to hold on to his heritage right to the breaking point.

Though forced to play the new game in town, a seemingly beaten Jesmark closes the movie with a moving parable to his infant son. A story about a boat, which over the years has been patched up so many times that very little of it remains, but yet, it still remains that boat. "Luzza" is a clever and affectionate tale about conflict, struggle, family, and the determination to retain one's humanity. A winner all around.

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It's quite a good drama, which, although gripping, reveals the main character's severe internal conflict.

The protagonist is a man named Zhesmark, a fisherman in his generation. The favorite occupation does not bring a high income, and the funds are not even enough for basic needs. And there is also a family - a woman and a small son, in whom doctors suspect a disease. A difficult life situation leads to tectonic shifts in his worldview.

The central character steps over himself, his beliefs and moral principles in order to earn the money needed for the family. He takes on any job, leaves his comfort zone and ends up where he shouldn't have gone.

Everything here works very well. Yes, the lead actor, in my humble opinion, is not too emotional and could have played better. Others simply did their job well.

The creative team managed to reveal the plot, convey the atmosphere of a society with canons and an ancient craft, which cannot adapt to modern realities and is doomed to decline.

Conclusion. Of course, this is a festival movie that not everyone will like. But it is really worth watching it once.

As a British expat. Living in Malta, this film gave a really good insight into the tensions between traditional Malta and the current fishing industry. Whilst it's setting was magnificent and showed off Malta, the story could have been anywhere where independent small business owners are drowing under a sea of bureaucratic red tape whilst the larger players merrily sidestep whatever the regulations are, secure in the knowledge that who they know/ pay, will ensure that any repercussions will be limited. Not so the little man, where the enforcement of often petty regulations are carried out with draconian fervour, largely because those charged with the task can only realistically catch the least powerful players.

The films is gritty and realistic, the acting powerful, the story line sad with a dark commentary on the effect of globalisation for us all.

Well worth watching.