Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: LUZZU [Sundance Film Festival 2021 - Virtual]

"Luzzu" [World Dramatic Competition] works within the access of classic themes of identity and responsibility but also a real world connotation of how life is changing, especially in smaller nations that lean on old world traditions like fishing. Set and filmed in Malta, it is the story of Jesmark, a fourth-generation fisherman who takes his classical "luzzu" boat out to make money to feed his family including his new baby son. Unlike even a hundred years ago, this is not enough and the world keep pushing and pulling at him. Jesmark is a sensitive and proud (and in real life) a fisherman in Malta. For a semi-pro actor in Jesmark, there is a real pain and life lived and yet still an ambition to survive. The film explores simple but hard decisions including loyalty and legacy as well as family. It is an intrinsic but very real discussion. A discussion with a new boss in a van near the loading docks gives a very harsh but true reality that hasn't dawned on most fisherman but is complicated by commercial interests. The religiosity and the texture of old world is very apparent in some of the rituals like a priest going through the harbor blessing the boats and in the repairing of a luzzu putting the paint imprint of his baby's foot on the boat. While through much of the movie Jesmark's progression seems downtrodden, the movie is missing some glimpse of hope. There is a sense of loss but also in the comfort of his son. But even if he is having trouble, there should be some glimpse of joy that makes it all worth it. That is missing. Now granted everything doesn't always works out well but the final image speaks to both the modernization and the psychology of a fisherman between worlds. B

By Tim Wassberg