Murina

Julija is seventeen and lives on an island on the Adriatic. Her father Ante is a hard man; he corrects his daughter constantly, allows his wife no say, and nobody in the house tells him no. The family lives off the sea; father and daughter spearfish for moray together. One day Ante's old friend Javier arrives; rich, widely travelled, and thinking of buying land. Julija sees him and sees a way out. Her mother knew this man once too. Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic directs and co-wrote the script; it is her first feature. Gracija Filipovic, Danica Curcic, Leon Lucev and Cliff Curtis are in the cast. It is a Croatian production with Brazil, the United States and Slovenia. The film screened in the Directors' Fortnight at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and won the Camera d'Or for best first film. Martin Scorsese is among its producers. Much of the narrative happens under and on the water; the diving is real and the actor dives herself. The matter it treats is control; the father uses affection as a way of governing. The film does not present the island as a paradise; beauty and suffocation stand in the same frame. The mother is the most complicated figure in it; she protects her daughter and guards her own past at once. The narrative builds no large events and the tension comes entirely from the relationships. The ending closes on a choice. Its limit is pace; the narrative is slow, little happens, and the tone suffocating. Who it is for: viewers who like European independent cinema and films that draw tension from relationships. Who it is not for: it is slow, suffocating, and the ending unresolved.