Luzzu
classified 15 PSPlease note: This was screened in June 2022
Self-employed Maltese fisherman Jesmark (played by real life fisherman Jesmark Scicluna, who won a Sundance Jury Prize for his very first acting role) is struggling to make ends meet in an increasingly harsh market. With a wife and young baby to support, he’s constantly battling both EU legislation (which limits the types of fish that he can catch) and the giant commercial trawlers that dominate the sea. Facing mounting economic strain and seeing no legal way forward, Jesmark happens on a black-market operation that could offer a solution – albeit a perilous one – to his problems…
Taking its name from the Maltese word for the country’s multicoloured traditional fishing boats, Luzzu is both an intimate and authentic character study and a crushing lament at the loss of community and cultural traditions in the name of progress.