Jesmark, a hardworking Maltese fisherman, is faced with an agonizing choice. He can repair his leaky fishing boat in the hopes of eking out a meager living at sea for his wife and son, or decommission it in exchange for an EU payout and cast his lot with a sinister black-market operation.

Bathed in blues and yellows—the colors of Maltese fishing boats—Alex Camilleri’s searingly authentic debut on a vanishing trade embraces a cast of nonactors and real-life fishermen. Travailing the riptides of globalization, this neorealist drama is a moving ode to the resilience of the human spirit.