“Leonidas and the Fish” by Alexander Machlouzarides-Shalit

“Leonidas and the Fish” is a splendid coming-of-age story that collects the most poetic and sensitive legacy of the literary and cinematographic field. The delicacy of this tale, so simple and powerful, seems to derive precisely from a poetically complex prose, one of those amazing ones that draw, with simplicity, an emotionally spectacular trajectory.

The splendid screenplay, written by the director Alexander Machlouzarides-Shalit together with Isaac Fisher, is in fact embellished by the cinematographic staging, which not only builds an elegant aesthetic but enriches the story with meaning. The interpretations of the actors (above all, that of the protagonist) expand the superficial structures of the narrative plot with the expression of complex and subtle emotions. And it is precisely in the social and emotional ties the true fulcrum of this film, its lyrical and human power. The silent intimate revolution of a young man takes place around the rite of passage, symbolized in the eternal conflict between man and nature and in hunting as a search for maturity and domination.

Alexander Machlouzarides-Shalit is very good at mixing the unusual with the everyday life, narrating life as if every time, in its eternal and varied repetition, a miracle happens. And it probably is.