There is a lot about emotional tension and teen yearning and the semi-official sexiness of swimming costumes in this confident directorial debut from Croatian film-maker Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic, though I wondered about some beautifully shot visual cliches.
Julija (Gracija Filipovic) is the teenage daughter of Ante (Leon Lucev), an aggressively insecure man whom she has to help, diving underwater with him while he makes a living on the rocky Adriatic coastline spear-fishing moray eels (the “murina” of the title). She is reasonably close to her mum Nela (Danica Curcic) but otherwise unhappily proud and self-contained. Her father is jittery with excitement because his old friend Javi (Cliff Curtis) is coming to visit: a super-rich alpha male who may be interested in buying some of Ante’s land to turn into a holiday resort. It is something of an open secret that Javi was once in love with Nela and may be still, and he is also much taken with Julija’s young beauty.
