For those of us with region free or PAL zone 2 DVD players, Emanuele Crialese’s award-winning Terraferma is available from ibs.it, amazon.it , and even amazon.com. For those that need them, there are English and also Italian subtitles.
The Academy Awards snubbed it (it was Italy’s official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Oscars in 2012), but it won the special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival and awards at many other film festivals. Starring Donatella Finocchiaro (Angela), and Filippo Pucillo (Golden Door), it’s the story of the boat people from north Africa that have been arriving on the tiny island of Lampedusa and Italy’s crisis with illegal immigration.
I saw it first in Venice at the festival, but I watched it again with my husband last night and he was mesmerized, commenting that it reminded him in a way that he is trying to put his finger on of a De Sica movie, like The Bicycle Thieves.
It’s a beautiful, visually stunning film, every frame a work of art, and the acting is so realistic, it’s heartbreaking; amazing, considering Pucillo was discovered on the island by Crialese when he was making Nuovomondo and has no theatrical training, and that the pregnant refugee that washes ashore is an actual Ethiopian refugee.
This one’s a keeper – take a look:
I Love Italian Everything 