FIRE AT SEA (2016)

1/28/2017 - Fire at Sea (2016) – 6-/10

It is undeniably gorgeous and unequivocally poignant/important, but I had a really difficult time connecting and keeping my interest through this slow & disparate slice-of-life. Some of these shots & vistas are some of the best/most gut-punching of the year (there is a scene of those who did not survive a journey, piled onto each other in the below deck - troubling and saddening.). Despite the horrors, hardships, and the beauty within the way they are captured, the film felt too segmented and concerningly impotent because of it.

I comprehend the juxtaposition of the quiet life of a boy in the serene countryside and the life & death struggles of the refugees fleeing to the same shores. I get it, but it is terribly slow and I feel as though I get too little story of those in pain and with a story to tell. Was that on purpose, to isolate the groups/stories even further from each other, or was it a tone deaf amalgamation?
I like the grandmother’s presence and the radio accompaniment, almost being an understandable tie binding the two larger narratives together, but I also might be interpolating excessive descriptive weight upon their roles.

So many (some might say too much) lingering scenes of the intricacies of the mundane. Made the film drag, for me, especially when there is such an artful elegance fused with depressing substance on display in the rest of the feature. I think this film has some truly great qualities, but it was kept from being amazingly good for me. Just didn’t work.