Why we picked it – Another first time feature, this one is by a Minnesota-raised, Maltese-heritage writer/director reconnecting with his roots.

Synopsis – Hardworking Maltese fisherman, Jesmark is faced with an agonizing choice. He can fix his family’s leaky luzzu – a traditional, multicoloured wooden fishing boat – in the hopes of eking out a meagre living at sea for his wife and newborn son; or he can decommission it in exchange for an EU payoff and join the criminal operation that is decimating the fish and local livelihoods.

The film– Camilleri cast real fishermen as the actors in this film. He encouraged them to improvise some of the dialogue. You would not guess that they are new to the screen although they are clearly at ease with the minutiae of a daily catch. The rich colour pallet – the red and yellow of the boat and the cerulean blue of the Mediterranean – contrast with the bleak, hard-scrabble existence of Jesmark and his friends. The dialogue is in Maltese (with subtitles) which is written in Latin script although derived from late medieval Arabic, with much influence from Italian and Sicilian.

Director/Writer – Alex Camilleri, Cinematography -Léo Lefèvre Malta, 2021. 94 mins, 15

Links – Guardian New York Times imdb