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Respiro (2002)
Director: Emanuele Crialese
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A vivid, wispy missive from a strange land that turns out to be the small fishing island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily, writer/director Crialese's eerie film depicts with languorous intimacy the textures of life among the local community: its rustic simplicity and brusque cruelty, its hard-worn beauty and unyielding traditions. One particular family is at its focus, and eventually, almost reluctantly, something of a story unfolds. A local myth about a persecuted woman who drowned herself, only to be brought brought back to life by the islanders' prayers, sets off convulsively free-spirited mother Grazia (Golino) and her eldest son in silent revolt against a plan to consign her to psychiatric treatment. Emotionally elliptical, the film finds its eloquence in the near-tactile clarity of its images. Accompanied John Surman's sonorous baritone saxophone offertory, the impressions of sun, sea and dust remain inscribed in the mind.Author: NB
Cast & crew
Director: Emanuele Crialese
Producer: Domenico Procacci
Cast: Valeria Golino, Vincenzo Amato, Francesco Casisa, Veronica D'Agostino, Filippo Pucillo, Avy Marciano, Elio Germano, Emma Loffredo full cast
Duration: 96 mins
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