LUZZU
Special Features: 2021 Oscar® Selection, Malta
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 Rossellini and the Dardenne brothers and calls to mind the socially engaged cinema of Ken Loach and the film's producer Ramin Bahrani (MAN PUSH CART, THE WHITE TIGER). (Note courtesy of Kino Lorber.) Official Selection, 2021 New Directors/New Films, BFI London and Karlovy Vary film festivals. DIR/SCR/PROD Alex Camilleri; PROD Rebecca Anastasi, Ramin Bahrani, Oliver Mallia. Malta, 2021, color, 94 min. In English and Maltese with English subtitles. NOT RATED
No AFI Member passes accepted.
Co-presented with DC LaborFest.
Run Time: 94 Minutes
Opening Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Genre: Drama