Luzzu

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Malta is a country not often represented on the ‘arthouse’ cinema screens of Europe, but that unfamiliarity is far from being the only reason you should seek out this simple, clear-eyed gem. Blessed with a terrific sense of time and place, Maltese-American filmmaker Alex Camilleri’s debut follows traditional fisherman and new dad Jesmark (played by real-life fisherman, Jesmark Scicluna), who finds himself at the sharp end of the tradition vs progress dilemma when his boat (a traditional, wooden, brightly-coloured Luzzu of the title) needs repair that, given his new responsibilities, he cannot afford…

A bleak (albeit one shot on a sunny Mediterranean island), tough exploration of masculinity in crisis, as forces beyond Jesmark’s comprehension shatter the only way of life he – not to mention previous generations of his family – have ever known.