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Reviews
La fine del mare (2007)
A truly cinematic experience.
This film was recently shown in competition at Sofia Film Festival where I had the good fortune to see it. From the very first shots you know you are in safe hands; that you are being told a story in a way that good European films used to tell them, but with a modern voice that we haven't heard before. The film then takes us on a emotional journey that is exciting, uplifting and from time to time, upsetting. The story of Todor and his extraordinary cargo (a trafficked woman) is told without recourse to hysteria or cliché. Often shot in long takes, the film is fast moving and tense and you can never tell what is coming next. The camera work is simple and visually eloquent; a breath of fresh air after the shambolic hand-held style of post-dogme films or the tedious shot/counter-shot formula of the mainstream.
The two leads are both excellent; Miki Manojlovic as Todor is charismatic, tough and surprisingly vulnerable. Diana Dobreva as Nilofaris is mysterious and touching, but never sentimental. The surprise comes from the two Italian actors in the film, Giuseppe Battiston and Luigi Maria Burruano, who both give extraordinarily relaxed and authoritative performances.
There are many memorable moments in this film but the last sequence dealing with the hero's death and its discovery by his lover is quite mesmeric. A man walks alone across a few railway tracks in a deserted port, accompanied only by the sound of his own footsteps and a faint, whistled melody and we know from this that he is going to his certain death. This is what cinema at its best is all about.