Sixth and last pair of films from the Official Section in competition at La Mostra de Valencia, Mediterranean Cinema.
Con Pizzeria by Alex Camilleri, We travel to the island of Malta, where we will meet Jesmark, a young and modest fisherman fighting to save his boat, which is the same as saying your way of life, of the precariousness to which his job is subject. Son of a long line of fishermen, imposed new forms of exploitation, Every day it is more difficult for you to place your merchandise, which reduces their already tight income. When he arrives at the fish market, sellers seem to reject your product, being forced to sell their catches on their own in area restaurants. But Jesmark's problems don't end there.. Your newborn daughter has growth problems due to poor nutrition. His wife blames Jesmark for this incident., something that she relates to her job insecurity and the lack of resources they have. Trying to escape this situation, His wife leaves him for a while to return to his mother's house.. This will push Jesmark to take drastic measures.
That's when, by chance, discover that the fish market works through a series of mafia mechanisms and a clientelist network and hidden interests that mark the purchase and sale of the fish market. Ready for anything, Jesmark manages to integrate into that organization. But things don't work out and he has to sell his boat., with serious consequences for him, who loves his job almost as much as his family.
If something catches your attention Pizzeria, Alex Camilleri's film, It is that search for realism and truth that permeates the entire film. So much so that the director has dispensed with professional actors to fill the roles of his main characters.. In fact, Jesmark responds to the name of his main actor, Jesmark Scicluna, real-life fisherman by trade who has stood in front of the cameras to tell his own story. “The film is part of my own story, of my life. I have a family, I am a fisherman, family struggles are real, “The struggles of small fishermen are real and we have tried to make the best of all this.”, said Scicluna at a press conference visiting Valencia for the presentation of the film to replace the director. ”As for the movie, the second part is more fiction, the first part is more similar to real life. [The movie]It makes you feel proud because we show something about the world of fishing that people don't know about.”, claimed.
To questions from the press, Scicluna paid attention to that dark aspect of his profession that we talked about a few paragraphs above., a world where things are not always as clean as they should be. “The truth is that it cannot be hidden. Numerous scandals have come to light in the past, one of them had Malta and Spain as actors. Sometimes we want to hide them, but it's not always possible. This is valid for fishing, but also for any commercial activity. We always try to do things as best as possible, But sometimes you feel betrayed by your friends.", commented.
In the viewer's imagination, maybe look for novels like The old man and the sea, undoubtedly one of the works that has fueled the myth of the happy fisherman, free from ties, who navigates oblivious to the mendacious world of men in the middle of an ocean that welcomes him like a son. But maybe those were other times. Hoy, The reality of the fishing world is very different. “We always think that when you go out to sea, has absolute freedom. But this has changed a lot because now bureaucracy dominates the traditional art of fishing.. Although I am a young fisherman, I have seen numerous changes, especially how that bureaucracy has been increasingly imposed, causing that freedom to be lost.”, said Scicluna in line with his character. This vision of his own world has been enriched by his participation in the film, which has allowed him to travel to other Mediterranean countries, confirming that these problems do not only affect their local community. “Before I had a perspective more from Malta and now I see that it is a problem that affects all of Europe. “I have been able to speak with government representatives and I know that different countries are trying to change the rules imposed by the European Union so that the lives of fishermen are more sustainable and so is fishing and food production.”, the actor reflected.
Behind all these problems is, however, that passion for the sea that snatches the soul of his character and that, maybe because he feels it himself, so well reflected in the movie. “For the fishermen, the boat is part of your family and is treated as such. In fact, the name of the movie boat, Tapalma, It's the real name of my father's boat., which is also the name of my grandmother's boat. This shows the relationship between the boat and our livelihoods.. There is a great relationship between life, the sea, our boat and what we do. It's something that hooks you and makes you never have enough.", Scicluna explained about himself and his character.
In Pizzeria, For once, the director's work is subject to the knowledge of the world he portrays and not the other way around.. A work that has involved a long preparation process on the part of the director. “[Alex Camilleri] I wanted it to be our own story. In fact, He didn't give us any kind of script.. In preparation, He dedicated two years of his life to going fishing with us, to help us clean the networks, to repair the networks, to drink coffee, to chat with us and be part of our life. After spending a few days together, gave us a scene in which we had to act, and that's how the whole story was shot. Actually, he hasn't taught us anything, but it was the other way around”, commented, fun, Scicluna. “We taught him about fishing. “If Camilieri were here he would say that it is easier to teach a fisherman to act than an actor to fish.”.
In another vein, with another narrative style, Souad de Ayten Amin, The Egyptian film from this edition of La Mostra closed the round of screenings of this year's Official Section. Here a young woman divides her life between her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Your friends, his attention to image and social networks and the norms imposed by the religious tradition that govern his family. One day, a tragic event will end his life. His little sister, will take care of recovering your memory, putting her own life towards a new horizon for her generation.
“I had an abstract idea of a girl who commits suicide.. The director remembered the case of a friend who had committed suicide and had not been able to forget it.", recalled Mahmoud Ezzat, screenwriter of the film and in charge of its presentation in Valencia. A film made with a very low budget that, however, It has toured the world at various festivals such as Berlin or Tribeca., with a formal bet that, just as Ezzat commented, knowledgeable about the Egyptian film industry, confronted the traditional media and languages of his most commercial cinema. Souad It unfolds like this with an almost documentary style, following the characters, camera in hand, wherever they go. “The idea was to experiment with another type of narrative. I have worked a lot for television, which implies that I know the traditional structures of principle well, knot and ending, but here we wanted to use other elements, playing with the sequences that we sometimes left in suspense. Hence the division of the film into three chapters.", the scriptwriter commented.
Souad compare, So, two worlds, that of tradition, with obtuse rules that grip adolescent girls, especially when it comes to relationships, and a digital world that has opened them to new forms of communication and new customs that contradict what their parents dictate.. “Social networks have gained great momentum. This makes a closed society like ours, open up. with the networks, young people create their own identity, can cross beyond the limits. They are having a great effect, against which, the authorities are trying to control it, But I don't think it works.", commented, hopeful, Mahmoud Ezzat.
However, And despite everything, These young women maintain a strong bond with the same tradition that precedes them., something that appears exposed in the film and that accounts for its complexity as a social portrait. The young women, So, they don't rebel against everything, They just demand a little more freedom.. “Religion is important in their lives. It's like a relationship with a father.. sometimes you hate it, others love it. It's the same with religion. Girls sometimes lean towards prayer, other times they leave it. as i say, It's all mixed up.", the writer commented as a farewell. G.LEON
