Gutbai, Charly

Caught Gutbai, Charly at the South Africa International Film Festival and I have to say I was glad to finally see something with heart and soul after so much pretentious rubbish everyone says they like but really nobody does. I was also surprised to see an almost feature film made entirely on a school budget, proving a "little film" doesn't have to be a little film!!

The movie itself is a story about a widowed fisherman who struggles to be both a father, a son and, above all, himself. All of this within the rustic complexity of a small fishing life. I found the beauty of the story to be in the raw simplicity of both, the script development and the character study, greatly performed by Luis Zahera.

There are some minor technical issues (sound a bit rough at times) still my only "but" would be the length of the film: it felt too short which might make it a bit hard to distribute / send it off to festivals.

My honest congratulations to Cassinello and his wonderfully hidden, pleasant "little film".