Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s Murina has garnered her a DGA nomination for first-time feature — an honor she also won at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. That’s in large part because of her willingness to face her greatest fears in the name of her art. “I’m terrified of the water,” she says. “I needed to make a movie underwater, because I really wanted to tap into the fear. It’s important to include your fears in your work.”
A coming-of-age story, Murina follows Julija, a teenager living on a remote island in Croatia with her domineering father and subservient mother. When her dad’s wealthy friend Javier (Cliff Curtis) comes to stay with the family, tensions rise as he offers Julija a possible exit out of her abusive household.
Kusijanović grew up spending summers on a similar isle, passing her days exploring its rocky beaches. She made a similarly aquatic-focused short film,...
A coming-of-age story, Murina follows Julija, a teenager living on a remote island in Croatia with her domineering father and subservient mother. When her dad’s wealthy friend Javier (Cliff Curtis) comes to stay with the family, tensions rise as he offers Julija a possible exit out of her abusive household.
Kusijanović grew up spending summers on a similar isle, passing her days exploring its rocky beaches. She made a similarly aquatic-focused short film,...
- 2/14/2023
- by Hilton Dresden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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As the stunning Murina opens, a blue expanse of water fills the frame like a painterly abstraction. Two divers drift into view, otherworldly in their masks and flippers and seemingly united in their spear-fishing mission. Once they’re back in the sunlight, though, their moray-eel prey dying in a pail between them on the boat, the man and his 17-year-old daughter are not in harmony. They might even be mortal enemies.
With an exceptional quartet of lead actors and a potent immersion in the Croatian island locale — you can practically smell the salt air and sea — Murina draws the viewer straight into its emotional undertow. Director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic and her co-writer, Frank Graziano, have constructed a taut story bristling with unease, and one that looks head-on at conflict. The father-daughter power struggle between Ante (Leon Lučev) and Julija (Gracija Filipović) is right...
As the stunning Murina opens, a blue expanse of water fills the frame like a painterly abstraction. Two divers drift into view, otherworldly in their masks and flippers and seemingly united in their spear-fishing mission. Once they’re back in the sunlight, though, their moray-eel prey dying in a pail between them on the boat, the man and his 17-year-old daughter are not in harmony. They might even be mortal enemies.
With an exceptional quartet of lead actors and a potent immersion in the Croatian island locale — you can practically smell the salt air and sea — Murina draws the viewer straight into its emotional undertow. Director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic and her co-writer, Frank Graziano, have constructed a taut story bristling with unease, and one that looks head-on at conflict. The father-daughter power struggle between Ante (Leon Lučev) and Julija (Gracija Filipović) is right...
- 7/15/2022
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s career is off to quite a start: the filmmaker made her feature debut with “Murina,” which won the Camera d’Or upon its 2021 Cannes premiere. But while it’s a distinctly feminine film, Kusijanović’s coming-of-age drama isn’t your typical “woman film,” as Kusijanović told IndieWire. And that may be its greatest asset — and a look at what’s to come for the rising star.
The lushly voyeuristic “carnal” family drama centers on 17-year-old diver and eel fisherwoman Julija (Gracija Filipović) as she struggles to slip out of the dictatorial grasp of her father Ante (Leon Lucev) and stifled mother Nela (Danica Curcic). When wealthy family friend Javier (Cliff Curtis) comes to town for a business investment, Julija sees a way out — no matter the cost.
Set along Croatia’s Adriatic coast, “Murina” features cinematography by “The Lost Daughter” and “Never Rarely Sometimes Always...
The lushly voyeuristic “carnal” family drama centers on 17-year-old diver and eel fisherwoman Julija (Gracija Filipović) as she struggles to slip out of the dictatorial grasp of her father Ante (Leon Lucev) and stifled mother Nela (Danica Curcic). When wealthy family friend Javier (Cliff Curtis) comes to town for a business investment, Julija sees a way out — no matter the cost.
Set along Croatia’s Adriatic coast, “Murina” features cinematography by “The Lost Daughter” and “Never Rarely Sometimes Always...
- 7/8/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
One of the hottest under-the-radar titles to emerge out of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival was Dubrovnik-born filmmaker Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s feature debut “Murina.” The film came to the Directors’ Fortnight with the imprimatur of executive producer Martin Scorsese and came out winning the Camera d’Or, the festival’s top prize for a first feature. With those recommendations, it’s baffling to find about a young woman’s blossoming sexuality under the spell of her mother’s old flame.
“Murina” sticks to familiarly opaque arthouse beats despite a dazzling symphonic opening sequence. And what an arresting sequence that opening is: In the capable hands of cinematographer Hélène Louvart, the film fades into an underwater shot of a rippling, cyan Mediterranean surface. It’s set to a stir of strings(from composers Evgueni and Sacha Galperine) that build toward a moment that feels like a cinematic overture. We then see two people,...
“Murina” sticks to familiarly opaque arthouse beats despite a dazzling symphonic opening sequence. And what an arresting sequence that opening is: In the capable hands of cinematographer Hélène Louvart, the film fades into an underwater shot of a rippling, cyan Mediterranean surface. It’s set to a stir of strings(from composers Evgueni and Sacha Galperine) that build toward a moment that feels like a cinematic overture. We then see two people,...
- 9/13/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
We often forget that exotic locales aren’t an escape for those living here. While co-eds dock ashore for sun, sex, and fun, families merely wake up early to go spearfishing so they have dinner that night. The psychological toll of constantly looking out your window at happy faces while dealing with the futility of teenage living under a domineering father with few (if any) opportunities to leave must be daunting. So when Julija (Gracija Filipovic) exits the water to see her father’s (Leon Lucev’s Ante) rich friend from a past life (Cliff Curtis’ Javi) has arrived, she wonders about the possibilities he brings. Ante and her mother (Danica Curcic’s Nela) hope to sell him land. Julija hopes he’ll save her.
And why shouldn’t she? Julija sees the way Javi looks at her mother (and the way she looks back). She also senses the jealousy...
And why shouldn’t she? Julija sees the way Javi looks at her mother (and the way she looks back). She also senses the jealousy...
- 9/13/2021
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
If Patricia Highsmith had ever written a coming-of-age story set on the rocky, clear-watered Croatian coastline, it might have looked a lot like Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s bright, brooding debut, “Murina,” which quietly, with a sinister Adriatic sparkle, makes the compelling case that .
As at home in the water as out of it — in fact the sea is maybe her refuge from more dangerous currents of life on land — Julija (Gracija Filipovic) is the lithe, surly teenage daughter of beautiful, unhappy, trapped Nela (Danica Curcic). The major source of tension in the family is Julija’s controlling, domineering father, Ante (Leon Lucev), the extent of whose abusiveness is hard to gauge, but who certainly expects submission and obedience of his womenfolk, and who diminishes Julija and scorns any ambitions she might have for anything but the future he has planned for her. Julija is beginning to bristle under his despotic...
As at home in the water as out of it — in fact the sea is maybe her refuge from more dangerous currents of life on land — Julija (Gracija Filipovic) is the lithe, surly teenage daughter of beautiful, unhappy, trapped Nela (Danica Curcic). The major source of tension in the family is Julija’s controlling, domineering father, Ante (Leon Lucev), the extent of whose abusiveness is hard to gauge, but who certainly expects submission and obedience of his womenfolk, and who diminishes Julija and scorns any ambitions she might have for anything but the future he has planned for her. Julija is beginning to bristle under his despotic...
- 7/30/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
In an industry which is still largely grappling at putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to empowering female film directors, there will always be something encouraging about seeing a first-time female director debut her work at an international film festival. But when you meet writer-director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, it’s hard to think that her name won’t be one that we continue to see in the director’s chair for years to come. The Croatian helmer, who has spent a chunk of her adult years in New York, is touching down on the Croisette for the first time with her debut feature Murina, which is premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the festival tomorrow.
The concept for Murina was largely inspired by Kusijanović’s short film Into The Blue, which was a huge hit on the international festival circuit, nabbing prizes in Berlin and Sarajevo.
The concept for Murina was largely inspired by Kusijanović’s short film Into The Blue, which was a huge hit on the international festival circuit, nabbing prizes in Berlin and Sarajevo.
- 7/9/2021
- by Diana Lodderhose
- Deadline Film + TV
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