The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea: the true mystery of Syllas Tzoumerkas’ film is what this film is truly supposed to be: the film doesn’t care about the whodunit aspect for it to even matter; as a chronicle of a small town far removed from the capital, it is superficial; as a character study of the policewoman outside her natural environment, it is dull; as an allegory, it is opaque at best and pretentious. The main characters are all abrasive, and not in an interesting or rich way, and the film drives that point home by creating tension-filled situations without any relevance or explanations; simply, the characters are unpleasant and don’ care about the others. Overacting is turned up to eleven, with lots of mugging and scowling; it is probably hard for the performers to create anything with such a group of irrational characters. Cinematographer Petrus Sjövik favors harsh lights, which highlights the ugliness of it all; at least that makes some thematic sense.