Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #89. The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea – Syllas Tzoumerkas

Published on January 3, 2019

The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea

Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas is finally getting ready to unveil his third feature, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea in 2019, reuniting with his A Blast actress Aggeliki Papoulia (we interviewed the Lanthimos regular back in 2012 for ALPS) and co-writer Youla Boudali for this revenge thriller. The Greek-German-Swedish co-production is produced by his regular collaborator Maria Drandaki of Homemade Films and co-produced by Ellen Havenith of PRPL, Titus Kreyenberg of unafilm and Olle Wirenhed of Dragon Films. Papoulia and Boudali’s co-stars include Christos Passalis, Maria Filini, Argyris Xafis, Thanassis Dovris and Laertis Malkotsis. Sweden’s Petro Sjovik serves as cinematographer. Tzoumerkas’ 2010 debut Homeland premiered in International Critics’ Week at Venice, while A Blast premiered in Locarno. Tzoumerkas also co-wrote Argyris Papadimtropoulos’ 2016 film Suntan which premiered in Rotterdam before heading to SXSW.

Gist: Forget the Jean Rhys references—Tzoumerkas’ thriller (described as having traces of horror) deals with two women living stagnant lives in a swampy provincial town whose lives are turned upside down following the suicide of another local. Papoulia stars as a promiscuous police officer who finds herself drawn to Rita, a lonely eel-hatchery worker overshadowed by her brother, a local music star.

Release Date/Prediction: Tzoumerkas completed production in November 2017. A recently dropped trailer comes before the title preems in the Panorama sidebar of the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.