Man at Sea

Plot

Alex, the captain of a Greek oil tanker, is still dealing with the death of his son four years ago. While his ship the "Sea Voyager" is in the Mediterranean Sea, Captain Alex comes across a boat filled with adolescent refugees from Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He takes pity on the refugees and allows them on his ship. He plans to drop the refugees off at a port, but local authorities refuse to take them, forcing the refugees to stay on the boat. Their residence angers the ship's owners, and gradually the "Sea Voyager" becomes a claustrophobic war zone between the refugees and the ship's owners.

Cast

Reception

"Man at Sea" was featured in the Panorama section of the 2011 Berlin Film Festival.

It was observed, "If Man at Sea isn’t the director’s best work – although it certainly is his most ambitious – it’s because of his inability to orchestrate the internal rhythms of the conflict." Movies Ltd. listed the diverse sociological issues that the movie deals with: "Illegal immigration, family loss, financial crisis, illegality" (Greek: Λαθρομετανάστευση, οικογενειακή απώλεια, οικονομική κρίση, παρανομία). Boyd van Hoeij wrote, "Giannaris’s latest plays more like 'Around the World in 80 Plot Twists.'"