Respiro

A fishing town on Lampedusa. Grazia is the mother of three and her husband Pietro is a quiet man. Grazia does not keep to the rules; she swims, she shouts, she takes things from the shop and gives them away, and her mother in law is unhappy about it. The town talks. The family makes a decision: Grazia will be sent to a clinic in Milan. Her son Pasquale hears. He takes his mother and hides her. The town looks for her and after a while she is counted lost. Pasquale takes her food every day and tells nobody. Emanuele Crialese writes and directs. Valeria Golino plays Grazia and Vincenzo Amato plays Pietro; Francesco Casisa and Veronica D'Agostino are in the cast. It is an Italian and French co-production. The film won the grand prize of Critics' Week at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. It was shot on Lampedusa and most of the extras are from the island. Its starting point is a legend told on the island; a woman who disappeared is believed to have come back from the sea. The matter it treats is not fitting; Grazia's condition is given a medical name but the film does not decide on it. The narrative shows the children's world as well; the gangs, the fights and the games on the shore are inside it. The final scene, underwater, is its best known passage. The photography rests on natural light and the colours are harsh. Its limit is structure; the narrative is loose, there is little event, and the ending symbolic. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian cinema and island narratives. Who it is not for: it is loose, slow, and the ending closed.