Luzzu

Resembling a Ken Loach film with added sunshine, Alex Camilleri’s drama shows someone struggling against economic pressures in Malta.

Camilleri combines the pathos and character development of an indie film with moments of real tension — not something you can often say about the world of fishing.

The film achieves what it intends to, but perhaps lacks personality.

An emotionally wrenching work...

Fresh, if not revolutionary.

The film goes exactly where one doesn't expect.

As visually stunning as the titular brightly painted wooden boat [...] Luzzu also feels as preciously crafted, with its raw look at the realities of economic survival recalling the acutely painful dilemmas of classic neorealist cinema.

Luzzu is a social message film that avoids didacticism by distilling complicated globalization and ecological issues into a simple family drama.

The aesthetic sensibility is verite, aggressively graceless handheld in the name of faux-verisimilitude, but the script’s been homogenized down to a series of predictable beats and the resulting over-familiarity entirely cancels out any atmospheric gains.

It’s hard to miss the Italian neo-realism influence all over the film, and fans of Belgian filmmakers the Dardenne brothers will be drawn to Camilleri’s real-world grit.