INTERVIEW: New film ‘Luzzu’ looks at hardships of Maltese fishermen
Photo: Luzzu stars nonprofessional actor Jesmark Scicluna. Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber / Provided by press rep with permission.
For director Alex Camilleri, the making of his debut film, Luzzu, was a personal affair that touched upon his family’s history. The movie, which is now playing in New York City and Los Angeles, follows a Maltese fisherman who needs to decide whether to repair his boat (called a luzzu) or retire from the sea altogether and find a new profession. The protagonist is played by nonprofessional actor Jesmark Scicluna, who won a special jury award for acting at the Sundance Film Festival.
“The film is somewhat a lifetime in the making because I grew up in the States,” Camilleri said in a recent phone interview. “My parents emigrated from Malta, and we always kept close ties to the island. I was always dreaming about making a film there. I set out to make my first film and was really captured by the beauty of traditional fishing in Malta, but so little actually seemed to be known about it by many of the people in Malta. So once I started my research and asking questions, what struck me from the fishermen that I spoke to was how much their own experiences seemed to mirror mine in a way. I often think about my connection to the island and what of this heritage, which means a lot to me, will be passed on to the future. Speaking of fishermen, they were thinking about the same thing, about their own tradition of this beautiful craft of small-scale fishing.”
The fishermen depicted in the fictional film have their backs against the wall. They are facing increased difficulties due to climate change and fishing regulations, and sometimes the best route for them to take it is to call it a day and hang up the nets for the last time.
“I heard so many fishermen desperate to get their children out of the fishing trade,” the filmmaker said. “They were very clear-eyed and were looking for a way honestly they could save their children from having the same fates, so it really made me think about parents having to sacrifice parts of their own identity in order for their children to thrive in a new context. And that was all too true in my own experience.”
Camilleri set out to make the movie with only nonprofessional actors. When he found Scicluna, he knew he had made the right choice. This is the first time the real-life Maltese fisherman has ever appeared on film, and his authenticity and truth are palpable on the screen.
“To this day, he’s still a fisherman, and he was discovered for this role,” Camilleri said. “From the outset, I knew I had to cast real fishermen in these roles. It just wouldn’t have worked otherwise. You know, I guess there’s a risk in it, but honestly I didn’t sense it. I was filled with the courage of films that I love that had used nonprofessional actors before, and for me those works they go beyond fiction. The reality just seems to burst through the frame, and Jesmark’s performance is great. On a technical level, you could match it against any trained actor, but what I think is so special about it is that it’s really his soul coming through the character, his lifetime on the sea and all the generations that came before him. It’s not the same film even if it was shot by shot with a trained actor pretending to be a fisherman. I think that there’s something that elevates it beyond the ordinary working this way.”
There were many challenges bringing Luzzu to life. Specifically, much of the story takes place on the open sea, which can cause many technical problems for a director and his crew. In particular, before this project, Camilleri had never been fishing in his life, and he doesn’t have the strongest sea legs.
“Not only is it challenging in the general sense — filming on water is as hard as everyone says it is — but it was challenging for me personally,” he said. “I had never gone fishing in my life prior to making this film, and I’m notoriously bad on boats. So I became very ill in the course of making this film, but you write a script about fishermen, you’re going to have to go to sea. Luckily, I was surrounded by a great crew in Malta; they’re really experts in filming at sea, so I relied on their expertise. And, of course, Jesmark and David, the other fisherman, for them it’s no problem, so I was at various moments throwing up over the side of the boat and trying to bark out directions. That was a unique challenge on this film. I don’t recommend it for anyone else.
The director added: “I think that the mind is very powerful, and the mind can overcome a lot of things. I always feel I’m very strong-willed, and I can learn things. But the sea legs I was always expecting them to come around, and they never did. There’s some things that the mind just can’t overcome. I was very glad to be done with shooting at sea once we completed it.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Luzzu, directed by Alex Camilleri, is now playing in New York City and Los Angeles from Kino Lorber. Click here for more information.
