Nautical
2018 · 15m · Malaysia
Directed by Fikri ZamRi
Genres: drama
Tones: melancholic, tense
On the storm-battered coast of Kelantan, a traditional fisherman with a pregnant wife and no income during monsoon season is talked into illegal blast fishing — a desperate gamble that destroys the reef and strands him on a rock in the open sea.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Most shorts about environmental destruction feel like sermon delivery—this one just *shows* a man choosing to blow up a reef because he's broke and terrified, and somehow that specificity makes it more damning than any message could. ZamRi trusts the premise to do the work, which is exactly the kind of subversive restraint that makes contrarians insufferable at parties.
A formally disciplined piece that inherits the lineage of coastal neorealism—the monsoon as both setting and moral pressure—while maintaining an unflinching eye on the economics of desperation in a specific Malay community; the editing syntax between the domestic interior and the open sea is precisely calibrated.
The decision to strand him on that rock at the end—to make the survival consequence literal and isolating rather than abstract—is what transforms a social-issue premise into something that feels earned; it's the kind of structural choice that costs nothing but changes everything about what you remember.
Reviews
The story takes place on the shore of Kelantan and follows Mahmud, a hardworking fisherman who prides himself on supporting his family but finds himself in a dire situation during monsoon season.
A bold Asian story from an emerging Asian filmmaker — a tense, environmentally charged survival drama from Malaysia.
Festivals
- BMW Shorties 2018, Nominated: Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Sound Design, Best Editing