Maree (2003)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

James Pellerito

Writer:

James Pellerito (writer)

Genre:

Family | Short

Plot:

An Albanian father and son flee war-torn Macedonia in search of a better future in Italy. Once in Venice, the father makes the most painful decision of his life. |

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Davide Murtas	...	Arben
Cora Gianolla	...	Suor Maria
Fabio Bozzetti	...	Commissario
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Luan Bexheti

Also Known As:

Tides (International: English title)

Runtime:

Germany:15 min

Country:

USA | Italy

Language:

Italian | Albanian

Color:

Color

Company:

Retribution Media

Craft and weight

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is an okay short. It manages, despite a lot of heavy-handed sentimental attempts otherwise, to provide at moments empathy for the father-son pair who have escaped war-torn Macedonia only to deal with personal threat. It's the story of a father and his son who find themselves in Venice, homeless and poor, decrepit and alone, and wondering what the future can hold. The father decides to try to abandon the son, but things don't work out as either expect and they soon find themselves wandering the empty streets looking for each other, hopelessly.

It's packed with weight of emotion and grief, but only sometimes does it come off as touching and tragic. The short itself suffers from some needless diversions that serve only to make the search longer. In theory, the increased length might be there to increase the sense of separation, but it doesn't do too well at that... there's always the sense that the two will just meet each other around a corner (and they do!).

But films like these don't exist for their dramatic impact, they are more about revealing the state of a certain culture through story. This film isn't all that bad--it has heart and importance.

--PolarisDiB