An exciting new voice from the Mediterranean, Croatian filmmaker Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic boldly explores the desperate desire for freedom of her teenage protagonist Julija (Gracija Filipovic), whose padre-padrone tyrant of a father undercuts her self-esteem at every turn, until at last she sees a way out in her mother’s former suitor. Their four-handed game plays out very gradually in the screenplay co-written by the director and Frank Graziano. At the same time, the girl’s choice to display and weaponize her under-age female body to escape her father’s grip introduces a controversial element that is often very disturbing. Set on a remote Croatian island in an atmosphere of brooding danger, this noir-ish imbroglio among four characters rests uneasily in the memory. With Martin Scorsese as an executive producer and crowned with the influential Camera d’Or in Cannes, Murina should have excellent prospects at the international art house box office where it will make a splash for its maker.
Yet a doubt persists that the erotic elements – Julija and, to a lesser extent, her attractive mother spend most of the film in revealing swimsuits; it’s summertime on the Croatian coast, after all — are cannily playing two roles, both attracting and criticizing the stares they provoke from the menfolk and, of course, the audience. (The film’s poster that simultaneously shows and hides the girl’s body is a classic tease.) In short, it’s a liberated Euro art house film that doesn’t play by p.c. rules.
At the heart of Alamat Kusijanovic’s story is the relationship between a father and daughter as the latter grows out of childhood obedience and into a strongly willed woman. Ante (veteran stage and screen thesp Leon Lucev) is a former sea captain who, it is hinted, has crashed a boat and caused an accident in which several people burned to death. But you would never guess there was a tragedy in his past from his swaggering bravado. In a powerful opening scene shot underwater, we learn that he and Julija are expert divers who spearfish moray eels called murina under rocks at the bottom of the sea. The fact that they do this holding their breath for up to five minutes adds an unbearable tension and an edge of danger. The filmmakers love symbolism and the eel soon becomes a stand-in for Julija’s own longing for liberty, notably when a cook preparing a speared eel for the frying pan pronounces, “Look how she bit her own flesh to set herself free.” This refers to the eel, but it makes us spend the rest of the film waiting for Julija to gnaw her way out of the family net that confines her. She, too, would go to any length to get away from her domineering father. The rub is that Dad is a martinet whose non-stop orders she has to obey on the double, or else receive a cutting reprimand or even physical abuse. Her lovely mother Nela (Danica Curcic) has learned to submit to his whims as a kind of self-sacrifice, but Julija seethes inside.
The narrative stumbles a bit in a slow build-up as she waits for her chance, which appears one summer’s day. Ante’s childhood friend Javier (Cliff Curtis), now a millionaire businessman based in the U.S., turns up to help Ante sell his gorgeous seaside home to some wealthy friends. Javier’s masculine self-assurance and charm dazzle Julija, but again pose a question. Why is the 17-year-old so attracted to this craggy-faced older man, one who carries a business magazine in his suitcase with his own face on the cover, followed by the caption “Ruthless Icon”? Why does she push her mother to resume relations with someone who appears to be an old flame ready to have another go? Is he a lover or a father figure? In Julija’s case, the two roles seem to blur.
The dangerous group atmosphere heats up Patricia Highsmith style, until one day they all go sailing on Ante’s boat. Showing off to the women, the two men dare each other in various dangerous enterprises, like sailing a shallow channel amid rocks and taking Julija underwater on her first scuba dive. As the tension mounts, hidden secrets are revealed right on schedule, water fights see mother and daughter mounted on the shoulders of father and old friend, and Julija concludes that seducing Javier herself is her only way out. All of this is very well-handled by Alamat Kusijanovic and her nuanced actors, who little by little unveil their true selves.
The last scenes of the film contain a major change of pace as the violence in Ante’s and Julija’s twin personalities explode. In a frightening crescendo of menacingly dark waters, Helene Louvart’s cinematography leaves behind the bright, sensuous Mediterranean sunlight for darkness and angst that confirm the girl’s determination to escape from the cold, cruel adult world. The camerawork emphasizes the primordial landscape of water- and wind-hewn rocks that make up the stark coastline, giving a mythic dimension to the family struggle that takes it far away from normal drama.
The well-chosen cast includes New Zealand actor Cliff Curtis (Once Were Warriors, The Dark Horse) as the fascinating heel who promises Julija a place at Harvard, among other pipe dreams, and Serbian-Danish actress Danica Curcic (Out Stealing Horses) in the shifting and ambiguous role of her mother. Without going overboard, Lucev creates a truly frightening presence as the father, although he turns out to be no match for the violence and determination of his daughter. Gracija Filipovic shows great self-possession and a knowing sexual maturity as Julija, a role she previously played in Alamat Kusijanovic’s award-winning short film Into the Blue (2017).
Director: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic
Screenplay: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic, Frank Graziano
Cast: Gracija Filipovic, Danica Curcic, Leon Lucev, Cliff Curtis, Jonas Smulders
Producers: Danijel Pek, Rodrigo Teixeira, Zdenka Gold
Executive producers: Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
Cinematography: Helene Louvart, Zoran Mikincic-Budin
Costume design: Amela Baksic
Editing: Vladimir Gojun
Music: Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine
Sound: Julij Zornik
Production companies: Antitalent Projukcija (Croatia), RT Features (Brazil), Spiritus Movens (Croatia), SPOK Films (Slovenia)
World sales: The Match Factory
Venue: El Gouna Film Festival (competition)
In Croatian, English
92 minutes
