Murina

Name: Murina
Genre: Drama
Released: July 8, 2022
Duration: 96 min
Rating: 76
Cast: Cliff Curtis, Danica Curcic, Gracija Filipovic, Jonas Smulders, Klara Mucci

2022

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 6 Ratings

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4.5	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 6 Ratings

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Murina (US Trailer 1)

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Movie Details & Credits

Kino Lorber | Release Date: July 8, 2022 | Not Rated

Starring: Cliff Curtis, Danica Curcic, Gracija Filipovic, Jonas Smulders, Klara Mucci, Leon Lucev, Marina Redzepovic, Milan Strljic, Mislav Cavajda, Niksa Butijer

Movie Facts:

Winner of the Camera d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

Summary: On a remote island along Croatia’s Adriatic coast, 17-year-old Julija (Gracija Filipovic) spends her days diving for eel with her domineering father Ante and watching other teens party on a nearby yacht. Julija bristles at Ante’s heavy handed cruelty and resents her mother Nela’s passivity. She longs for independence but is unsure how toOn a remote island along Croatia’s Adriatic coast, 17-year-old Julija (Gracija Filipovic) spends her days diving for eel with her domineering father Ante and watching other teens party on a nearby yacht. Julija bristles at Ante’s heavy handed cruelty and resents her mother Nela’s passivity. She longs for independence but is unsure how to achieve it, until the arrival of the rich and mysterious Javier seems to offer a way out. Javier is considering buying Ante’s land to build a resort, which would allow the family to escape their island isolation for the city. Once Ante’s employer and Nela’s lover, Javier flirts shamelessly with Nela and Julija, setting off a subtle battle of hypermasculine one-upmanship that pushes Ante to humiliate and control Julija even more. Flattered by Javier’s praise and stories of traveling the world, Julija sees him as the solution to all her problems. But does his affection portend freedom, or something more sinister? … Expand

Director: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 96 min

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Critic Reviews

Sumner Forbes

Jul 21, 2022

Kusijanovic’s feature-length debut is nothing short of revelatory. Murina is the perfect summer film. Beautiful scenery, nuanced performances, and canny filmmaking provide one of the most memorable coming-of-age stories of the 2020s so far. Read full review

Bilge Ebiri

Jul 11, 2022

Kusijanović conveys all this through the way her actors move against and look at one another. That’s filmmaking of the highest order — intimate and gripping. Read full review

Trace Sauveur

Jul 14, 2022

Looking at the world around us, this is the perfect summer drama for a society that continually proves itself more and more obsessed with controlling women. Read full review

Empire David Parkinson

Apr 6, 2022

Showing how paradise can be hell, this audiovisual treat is spiritedly played by its leads and bristles with a brooding menace that can't quite disguise the story's essentially melodramatic nature. Read full review

Michael Phillips

Dec 10, 2022

What the film has is visual authority and an eye for composition. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Jul 5, 2022

Kusijanovic has given us a “Lolita” without exploitation, a “Knife in Water” with spear guns, and a disturbing riff on toxic masculinity and rash teenaged impulses simmered in a seaside chowder of sex and gamesmanship, making for a dazzling first feature. Read full review

IndieWire Ryan Lattanzio

Sep 13, 2021

A murky, vaguely sinister, but ultimately dreary coming-of-age film about a young woman’s blossoming sexuality under the spell of her mother’s old flame. Read full review

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User Reviews

Brent_Marchant

Sep 8, 2022

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 EuropeanAdolescence 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 Kusijanović’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.… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

Lorfgt

Jul 25, 2022

Typical low effort pretentious slav misery porn arthouse film. The director is your usual self hating croat **** venting about her daddy issue and portraying Croatia as some hellhole every slavoid is trying to escape. I have to echo what a lot of user reviews here and on IMDB have writer.Typical low effort pretentious slav misery porn arthouse film. The director is your usual self hating croat **** venting about her daddy issue and portraying Croatia as some hellhole every slavoid is trying to escape. I have to echo what a lot of user reviews here and on IMDB have writer. This almost type of fetishisation of Balkan/Eastern European filmmakers have with portraying their country as hell on earth when statistically speaking they’re safer and better to live in than the majority of countries on earth (especially Croatia). It’s like it’s almost a template designed by these hacks to cash in on this pretentious type of way foreigners are used to viewing countries like Croatia .

The story is about some self absorbed brat leeching off her father, whom the film desperately tries to portray as strong willed and rebellious, and yet her stunning and brave act of rebellion is to whore herself to some rich foregin guy in the hopes he will take her away from her father. Because at the end of that day that’s the only thing Eastern Euro slav hoes are capable of doing-whoring themselves to the first foreigner they see and then complain and over exaggerate how horrible their life is in their country, instead actually of doing something worthwhile and making a change. They fetishes themselves and act like special princesses that the whole world wants and yet don’t bring anything else of value to the table besides how much everyone wants to **** them.

To the director of the story-I’m sorry your daddy didn’t give you enough hugs, but please try to get better material. It may impress gullible foreigners who view this type of tripe as high art, but to those of us living here and have seen a dozen of these types of films, it’s extremely boring, predictable and eye rolling.… Expand

4 of 7 users found this helpful43

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