Luzzu

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.