The film premiered at the Panorama section of the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival . Its official premiere took place at the Zoo Palast , and was presented by Michael Stultz . New Europe Film Sales announced its theatrical release in a series of territories ( Germany , Greece , Poland , Korea , Sweden , etc. ) , and the film continued its festival outings with participations at the 2019 BiFan - Bucheon Fantastic International Film Festival ( Asian premiere ) , the Beaune International Thriller Festival , the Istanbul Film Festival , the Transylvania International Film Festival , etc . After its premiere in Berlinale , the Guardian 's film critic Peter Bradshaw gave the film a 3/5 star review , calling it " A Lynchian psychodrama in the sun " and " a disquieting spectacle of strangeness " . The Hollywood Reporter and Screen International praised the film for its direction , imagery and the committed performances of Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali , while criticising elements of the script 's narrative construction and pace . Guy Lodge in Variety wrote that " “ '' A Blast '' director Syllas Tzoumerkas returns with an agitated , atmospheric and sometimes confounding exercise in modern Greek tragedy . Tzoumerkas ’ latest invites comparisons to the loopier , trash-skirting genre outings of Herzog or Lynch , with the gradual unpeeling of layered madness and corruption in the sleepy working town of Missolonghi occasionally calling to mind an aggressively sunburned '' Twin Peaks '' " . Savina Petkova of the Electric Ghost gave the film 5/5 stars , writing that " while the film is saturated with Biblical quotes , icons of saints , and church choir songs , its form attends equally to the lowly human , animal , and nature . Pacifying all forms of life under the flag of future deliverance , the promise that each being will attain their most perfect form and self , '' The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea '' provides a convergence between religious submission and humanistic agency . ” Victoria Ferguson in the Upcoming gave the film a 3/5 review praising the cinematography by Petrus Sjövik and " its close shots that capture the inner angst of the characters " and calling '' The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea '' visually compelling , and ' a show of great creative ambition from Tzoumerkas . ” Italian critic Massimo Lechi wrote in '' Il Ragazzo Selvaggio '' magazine that “ '' The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea '' , set in the inhospitable surroundings of a sun-parched Missolonghi , is a metaphysical thriller loaded with biblical references , an unsettling and disturbing meditation on the concept of paradise featuring two women in profound existential crisis : Elisabeth , ( a master Angeliki Papoulia ) a disgraced policewoman confined in the province by her superiors following an unfortunate anti-terrorist operation ; and Rita ( the brave Youla Boudali , also co-screenwriter ) , a painful figure of a martyr besieged by visions of a mystical background . Tzoumerkas ’ cinema is one that ’s not afraid of risk or ridicule , one which in fact , has the clear intent of forcing the limits of both the police genre and the auteur film genre , seducing with the skill of its performers and its disquieting aesthetic choices that are never banal . After '' Homeland '' ( 2010 ) and '' A Blast '' ( 2014 ) , '' The Miracle of the Sargasso '' is the third – and more complex – chapter of Tzoumerkas ’ ideal trilogy on contemporary Greece . ” '' The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea '' and Syllas Tzoumerkas were nominated for the Panorama Audience Award and the Teddy Award at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival
Transylvania International Film Festival
Transilvania International Film Festival
The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea