Murina

Outstanding and well directed story which unfortunately didn't totally convince me due to some setting/plot and acting weakness. I won't spoil the storyline/script problems I found (I assume the english subbing was faithful): they are not really important but prevented me to fully enjoy the film.

G. Filipovic, the absolute protagonist - though a talented mediterranean beauty and a pleasure to watch (the writer/director agrees and indulges in a lot of revealing swimsuit shots) - doesn't always show a proper range. In some instances either fails to convince (not conveying the dramatic tension required in some scenes) or gets out of character (turning from silly girl to wise housewife to plotting homewrecker and back with too much ease) - proving that eyes actually lie.

Overall though, a very good drama about a family living in a secluded villa on the croatian coastline, and inexorably disintegrating when an affluent friend considers investing in the land.

As an insignificant side note: I'd have likely never watched this movie if it hadn't won the Cannes' "camera d'or" prize over "Rien a foutre" which recently made a great impression on me. Another drama about a young woman. Another film that deserves to be watched - though IMO not in the same category.

The director and the actors did a great job getting the feelings of each person on the surface. Suddenly, in the so-called East democracies we live along with the referred in the film stereotypes. A fair criticism to the patriarchal family which oppresses mainly the female members whose unhappiness inevitably drives to a miserable if not unloving family. See the twenty-first century shame through the eyes of a girl which is taught to suppress it's freedom... but decides to claim the happiness everyone stole her... Deserved the awards it got, beautiful landscapes. The ending left me feeling optimistic!

A lovely film that transports you back to summer , , also a well performed and excellently written and directed film.

Essentially, it tells the story of a young woman and her domineering father on vacation in Croatia, swimming, snorkelling and seemingly following his expectations for her future, that is until a an old friend of the family comes along and sees how she is being stifled by her own father, so tries to help her break out and find her own potential. The results are tense and dramatically powerful but ring true as an honest coming of age tale. It's all wonderfully done and with a real sense of location, summer, youth and beauty. Well worth a watch.

That will remind you that the hvratskanian archipelagos is one of the most prescious and beautiful places on earth, warm water clear seas, and finally a film with an actor that really knows how to swim (im a swimfan you know), good looking she is too to say the least, a film about a small family that is on the brink of devastation, a dominant and commanding kinda psychopath, seaworthy but landfast captain of the sea, a fragile daughter whos adolescence and urge to break free is imminent, and where the mother stands helpless inbetween them both. When a long lost friend visits everything turns cataclysmic..-.

Its an european art movie that will be praised by most critics, even by the grumpy old man, who dove a lot in this area when a young boy, still feeling the itching spikes of the black sea urchins of paradise. A film to watch for natural beauty, both human and scenic, great filmography and a sore and at times agonizing and asphyxiating on the issues of family relations.

Adolescence is a time for finding oneself, especially when it comes to our sense of personal power. That's rarely easy, but it can be especially difficult for a teenage girl trapped in a household with a chauvinistic father, a condition not uncommon in many traditional Eastern European households. Such is the fate of a quiet but independently minded Croatian adolescent who longs for freedom from under the thumb of her domineering dad and capitulating mother. But the potential for profound change arises when a wealthy old friend of her father pays a visit to their coastal fishing village, one that could transform her life and that of her mother, provided they have the courage to act on it. Director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic's debut feature from Executive Producer Martin Scorsese presents an intense, intimate character study of an individual's search for empowerment in the face of oppressing odds and confusing circumstances that, like the clandestine behavior of the moray eels she and her father routinely hunt, deceptively conceal much of what's actually going on. This winner of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival Golden Camera Award for best first feature simmers slowly but builds tension well, engaging viewers handily, despite some repetitive narrative elements and occasional "atmospheric" camera work whose deliberate murkiness goes a little overboard in metaphorically depicting the intended character of the story. A number of films with themes similar to those explored here have emerged from this region in recent years, such as "Hive" (2021) and "God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya" (2019). That's an indication that there's a need for the expression of these notions, and, thankfully, filmmakers have successfully risen to the occasion, making the world more aware about conditions for women desperately in need of reform.