Director: Emanuele Crialese/Starring: Filipo Pucillo, Donatella Finocchiaro, Beppe Fiorello, Mimmo Cuticchio, Timnit T, Claudio Santamaria and Lois Clottey
A film that never found American distribution in 2011 was Italian director Emanuele Crialese's Terraferma; a powerful drama that takes place on a tiny island somewhere between Sicily and the North African coast. Wedding stunning imagery to a riveting narrative, the film tells the story of an Italian family whose fishing livelihood is in decline; leaving them with scant means in which to earn a living. The family patriarch, Ernesto (Mimmo Cuticchio), refuses to heed his son Finanziere's (Claudio Santamaria) pleas to sell their fishing vessel, whose dismantling would earn the family the hefty sum of 100 thousand Euros. Ernesto's grandson Filippo (Filippo Pucillo), shares his grandfather's stubbornness though his mother Giulietta (Donatella Finocchiaro) believes her brother's idea to be financially sound. Giulietta urges Filippo to leave the island, believing his best opportunity for a richer life lay on the mainland. Filippo rejects his mother's wishes and instead helps her convert their island home to a tourist rental for vacationers swarming the island. Ernesto reluctantly agrees to use their boat for tourist outings, while Finanziere caters to tourists on his own vessel, where young, bikini-clad revelers dance and party when not swimming out at sea.
Before long, Filippo and Giulietta manage to attract three young tourists to their home. Filippo falls immediately for a beautiful blonde girl in the trio and discovers his attentions are reciprocated.
Crialese, known for his brilliant camerawork in the films Respiro and Golden Door, captures startling images in Terraferma: Ernesto's boat aloft in dry-dock; its underside heavy with parasitic sea-life; the ominous shards of immigrant boats floating on the ocean surface; a long-shot of Finanziere's boat from an undersea perspective, as tourists plunge into the sky-blue water. Also in Crialese's gallery are aerial pans of the island's geological past, which include sandy calderas and dormant volcanoes.
While taking the three tourists out to sea, Ernesto and Filippo spot a boat overladen with African refugees. Ernesto immediately contacts the Coast Guard, who warn him to not allow any to come aboard. But seeing a desperate group swimming toward the boat, Ernesto helps them onto the deck. Among those he helps are a pregnant woman named Sara (Timnit T.) and her son. As a coast guard ship approaches the boat containing refugees, Ernesto and Filippo hide their human cargo and return to shore, where the male refugees immediately scatter, leaving Sara and her son to fend for themselves. Ernesto brings Sara and her son home and the next day leaves them in Giulietta's care, who angrily resents their presence.
Soon after her arrival, Sara gives birth to a baby girl. Sara tells Giulietta about her time in a Libyan jail, where she was raped and impregnated by one of her captors. She also informs Giulietta that her husband is waiting for her in Turin and asks her how she might find passage there.
In a scene notable for its wondrous beauty, Giulietta and Filippo use a glowing globe to determine Sara's country of origin. We see Sara run her finger over the map before it comes to rest on Ethiopia. When Sara asks about the island's location on the globe, Filippo is quick to point out that the landmass is too small to be included.
The authorities soon discover that Ernesto and Filippo have assisted a group of refugees and harass them forthwith as they prepare for a tourist outing. The fascistic carabinieri bully Ernesto, demanding a permit to carry tourists, which he is unable to provide. The officer then seizes the boat; which sparks Filippo's violent outrage. Ernesto's protestations go unheard as the carabiniere spreads police tape across the deck.
In subsequent scenes, Ernesto explains to Filippo and Giulietta about the seaman's code of saving anyone in distress, which violates the rigid laws which prohibit lending refugees assistance.
The stress and tension of providing sanctuary becomes nearly unbearable for Ernesto and his family but they soon discover another conflict raging between Sara and her older son, who she finds strangling her newborn daughter. Her older son's shame in having a bastard sibling, one who is no-less the product of a rape, is too much for him to bear.
More tension mounts as the family realizes it must help Sara reach the mainland; a plan fraught with danger and risk. Filippo, in a self-sacrificial act, takes action with an uncertain end.
Crialese's film offers many parallels between Ernesto's family's struggles and those of the refugees, which are hardly dissimilar. Both see the mainland as a means to prosperity or a better life. Both are subject to draconian laws while both mothers see the Italian peninsula as an answer to their mutual troubles.
Fascinating contrasts abound between the refugees defying death out at sea and the pleasure-seeking tourists. A scene of the tourists frolicking in the ocean bears a disquieting incongruence to another of refugees swimming desperately toward Filippo's boat during an evening outing. The ocean is both recreational and deadly, depending on one's perspective.
More sobering imagery: a tracking shot of the ocean floor, where the belongings of those who have died in crossing lay in the sand. The camera pans along the sandy bottom until it rests on a body encrusted in reef-like debris; a grim, watery fate for many who brave the crossing.
Crialese's film has an immediate and topical relevance, which is echoed in the recent Syrian refugee crisis. I was impressed with the film's humanity and its sensitivity to an issue with no easy answers. Its sympathies for the refugees are very well conveyed.
The story is told with great care and compassion; its characters are vividly drawn and quite memorable. Its visual poetry is conspicuous, as is Crialese's excellent storytelling.
Fortunately the film is available on Netflix though I was lucky enough to catch it at a rare screening in a local cinema in what is probably its only American theatrical appearance ever. It is truly unforgettable.
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