magonzalez-15762
I thought that Simshar was a very touching and emotional film. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I found it interesting about the background summary that they gave. The film seemed to have two different stories, one about the Simshar, and another about a merchant vessel that has stopped to rescue some migrants (I believe it was the Pinar E, but it could have had a fake name). The Simshar sinks, leading to the death of four out of the five members on board. There were some parts of the story that I did not understand however. For instance, why did the crew not fix their ship? They obviously knew that there was a problem, since they had to put out a fire a few days earlier. Is it because they could not afford the parts to fix the ship? And why was there such a hostility towards the refugees? There wasn't a great deal of logic behind their hatred, but when has there ever?
Lily Schneider
The 2014 film called, "Simshar," inspired by true events, and directed by Rebecca Cremona, is a slow paced, yet somehow exhilarating film concerning the tragedies of Simshar -- the boat and the people on board. This film, although somewhat slow and tedious, kept me on the edge of my seat to see what would happen next. There were many obstacles the main characters faced that caused me to be frustrated for them because they were in such tough situations on the water. Many global perspectives can be inferred and taken from the film in different ways. For instance, when the main characters (including the father, his son, and the father's friend) were hanging on for their lives on one raft in the ocean, they were seeking for help, obviously. However, when the father's friend was waving his hands for help when a big ship went by, the ship decided to keep moving along because of the color of the father's friend's skin. This was interesting and somewhat shocking to me -- to see the line drawn out between immigrants and other people within a country. This intrigued me, and it set a new global perspective out for me.
drhupp
Simshar was a very suspenseful movie that included many political problems regarding refugees coming from Libya and other African countries to Malta. However, that was not the main focus of the movie, but it was something that had a great influence on the rest of the movie. It was almost as if the movie was telling two stories in Malta. One story included a doctor having to stay on a boat and help tend to the injured, sick, or pregnant women. The other story involved a family that were fisherman, they were being almost tormented by the government for having to re- apply for a fishing license. The family went out anyway, well the Mom and youngest son stayed home, but the dad, grandpa, and oldest son went fishing. They headed south and turned their satellite tracker off so the government couldn't find them, but one night a fire goes of in the hull of the boat and everyone has to jump overboard and hang onto small debris. The grandpa died right away which was sad, but expected. In the end only the Dad survives and he can't help but think about the death of his son. I'm pretty sure this story was true, so I don't think the ending needs to be changed at all.
Mario g
The ONLY persons who are gonna watch this movie is the family and friends of the producers, actors and the cast. The scenes that follow cut between the refugee boat, where Alex (Mark Mifsud), the grumpy Red Cross doctor, has been forced to stay aboard to care for a young pregnant woman, and the fishermen, who are forced to venture further and further from home in their search for the elusive tuna.A couple of plot twists are predictable but so is life at times, and you can just about accept the speed with which Alex comes round to the refugees' point of view, strongly influenced by his growing attraction to their feisty interpreter. As for the fishermen's story, the sense of inevitability which shadows their voyage simply underlines its tragedy.The film was Malta's entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category at this year's Academy Awards – the first that Malta has ever submitted to the Oscars. And you can see why it felt moved to do so.
AD
