Making Waves

Enjoying a string of plaudits and accolades from the international film festival circuit, LUZZU is arguably Malta’s first real standout piece of world-class cinema. Director ALEX CAMILLERI speaks about the struggles and circumstances that inspired his debut feature-length film.

It’s one of the key tenets of writing in any medium: write what you know. Yet, for Alex Camilleri, the Maltese-American writer and director of LUZZU—a film that hinges entirely around the fringe world of traditional Maltese fishing—his subject matter couldn’t have fallen further outside his comfort zone.

“I was a total stranger to the world of traditional fishing in Malta,” he explains. “In fact, I had never gone fishing in my life, anywhere. I didn’t like boats and I often get seasick,” he explains in his self-effacing manner.

Trawl nets and longlines aside, Camilleri found a much more primal affinity with the fishermen he struck up conversations with when he first began piecing together the bones of his first feature-length film. He was surprised to discover how these men, often older than him, wrestled with internal struggles that mirrored his own at a crucial point in his life.

“I turned 30 and for the first time I started thinking about having a family and what of my own heritage would be passed on. And it wasn’t always easy to see what that would look like for my children. When I started speaking to fishermen, I sensed they were grappling with the same question in a different way, which is what of this beautiful trade that fills them with meaning, what part of it, if any, will last into the next generation.”

These age-old questions about heritage and legacy form the emotional canvas for LUZZU, and the thematic thread of fishing provided the perfect excuse for Camilleri to explore his own ties to Malta, the home of his parents who emigrated to the United States in the 80s.

Shot entirely on location around the island, this Maltese-language film follows Jesmark, a young fisherman who is contending with a newfound leak in his wooden luzzu boat. Camilleri travelled to Malta to seek out a cast of mostly non-actors to tell a deeply personal story that offers an unflinching glimpse into the life of a local fishermen; from the break-of-dawn solo outings on the open sea, on a tiny boat miles and miles out from land, to the heart-warming camaraderie among tight-knit fishing communities and the unruly competitiveness of the fish markets governed by cut-throat merchants and regulators.

Like the sweeping sea that backdrops many a scene in this emotionally arresting film, LUZZU is all calmness and poised beauty on the surface, but a maelstrom of emotions bubbles below. As Jesmark struggles to make ends meet, we watch on as his livelihood—and a family tradition from generations before him—is increasingly threatened by diminishing harvests, a ruthless fishing industry, and the tides of progress. Desperate to provide for his wife and their new-born son, whose growth impediment requires treatment, Jesmark gradually slips into an illicit black-market fishing operation.

Despite the soul-crushing arc of Jesmark’s internal journey, this is a film that finds hope and beauty rooted in family and friendship. It's an astonishing piece of personal cinema that grapples with the tug and pull of morality and compromise, and the sacrifices people are forced to make to provide a better future for their children.

The film is anchored by lead actor and real-life fisherman Jesmark Scicluna, who had never acted a day in his life before Camilleri cast him in the starring role. Camilleri joined Jesmark and his cousin David Sciculna on one of their early morning fishing trips while scouting Malta to gain a clearer insight into the local fishing industry. Armed with a camera, Camilleri encouraged the pair to improvise a scene while they were out at sea. The raw honesty of their performances caught his imagination, and he was convinced that these two non-actors could carry the emotional heft of the film.

The main cast is rounded off by Jesmark’s fictional partner Michela Farrugia who plays off the lead’s understated stoicism with heartfelt aplomb. It’s a movingly intimate portrayal of a couple being torn apart by forces much larger than themselves. But the two make it all feel pointedly personal, grounded, and believable.

Added to the list of uphill challenges Camilleri seems to have inflicted on himself is the fact the American-born director doesn’t speak a word of Maltese.

“My parents decided to not teach their children their language because they felt it might hinder our assimilation in America. I don’t begrudge them for this, but it still strikes a certain sadness in me,” he says, reflecting on the cultural compromises his own parents made to make life easier for him.

Thankfully, the language barriers didn’t get in the way of Camilleri capturing some truly stellar performances from his principal cast.

“Not speaking Maltese made me a much better director. What I wanted to get to was the emotion underneath the lines. And you don’t need to be a fluent speaker in any language to look at someone’s body language, to look into their eyes, and sense whether the performance is earnest or not.”

This unusual combination of a debut director working with non-actors on a low-budget independent film in Malta has proven to be LUZZU’s winning ticket. It premiered to wide acclaim at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Acting in recognition of Jesmark’s performance. The film has also been an audience favourite and won awards from an ongoing list of prestigious festivals on the international film circuit.

More significantly, Camilleri’s love affair with filming Malta seems to only just be beginning. The director already has another project lined up set on local shores.

“I am at work on a second film and there’s a little bit of a shared philosophy with LUZZU, which is a small film set in a very particular side of Malta. But it also couldn’t be more different from LUZZU. If LUZZU is Rossellini, the next one is going to be more Fellini.”

Given the quality and power of LUZZU, and the impression it has made on the international stage, one can only hope this will be the start of something special in Maltese cinema.

This article originally appeared in Il-Bizzilla magazine, November 2021 issue.