Debut director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović's sensitively-drawn drama, an expansion of her 2017 short Into the Blue, puts a feminist spin on aquatic noirs, like Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water or Rene Clement's Purple Noon.
Seventeen-year-old Julija (Gracija Filipović, by turns stoic and despondent) helps her parents run a rustic seaside resort on Croatia's sun-blasted Dalmation coast. Every morning, she and her father dive beneath the waves to capture murina (moray eels known for the lengths they'll go to evade capture). While cleaning them, she watches longingly as young tourists frolic on a yacht. Her parents would like to move to Zagreb, but first they have to find a buyer for their property.
If she had a choice, Julija would spend all of her time in a one-piece swimsuit, but her mother, Nela (Danica Curcic), considers it inappropriate, so she dresses more modestly when Ante's friend and former employer, Javi (Cliff Curtis, Once Were Warriors), pays a visit. Her father, Ante (Leon Lučev), also insists that she memorize a poem to recite to him and their other guests, but criticizes her when she omits a line. It's clear that he does this kind of thing all the time, but she doesn't say a word.
Ante becomes increasingly critical after Javi's friends leave. He’s hoping to make a sale, and Javi has money. Julija takes an instant liking to the mogul's relaxed, confident manner. She doesn't understand why her mother chose the volatile, insecure Ante, not least when she and Javi still seem attracted to each other. Ante also fails to notice Javi looking on disapprovingly whenever he criticizes Julija. He even encourages her to go to college--specifically Harvard--but Ante dismisses the notion.
Kusijanović creates a hothouse environment in which everyone has a reason to resent Ante, who isn't even an ethical businessman. In addition to his daughter, he's stifled Nela's ambitions, and nothing frightens Julija more than the idea of growing up to be a browbeaten housewife like her mother, a former beauty queen--unless she can find a way to make an escape.
The more she and Ante clash, the more rebellious Julija becomes, until he locks her in a storage cellar just as Javi is preparing to leave. She had been hoping to accompany him. Things soon become nightmarish in ways that even Ante couldn't have anticipated, but her considerable diving skills will serve an unexpected purpose.
Though violence threatens to break out at several junctures, Murina is a coming-of-age story in the guise of a thriller. Kusijanović prioritizes emotional violence, which only escalates from start to finish, brought to life by a gifted cast, Gracija Filipović (a professional swimmer) above all, who has to carry most every scene. The film won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes for best first feature, and so impressed Martin Scorsese that he signed on as an executive producer. Kusijanović now joins an esteemed roster of women filmmakers to receive his support including Alice Rohrwacher, Joanna Hogg, and Josephine Decker.
Where does this title belong on library shelves?
Murina belongs on international/foreign-language and drama shelves in academic and public libraries.
What kind of film series could use this title?
Film series on emerging women directors and contemporary Croatia would benefit from programming Murina.
What type of instructors will use this title?
College-level film and European/Croatian studies instructors should consider Murina for inclusion in a curriculum, particularly in sections on the sunshine noir (a genre often associated with Patricia Highsmith) or coming-of-age story.