Italy-France

GRAZIA'S ISLAND

CREDITS 

35mm - COLORE - 95’
Direction: Emanuele Crialese
Screenplay: Emanuele Crialese
Photography: Fabio Zamarion
Musics: Andrea Guerra, John Surman
Editing: Didier Ranz
Setting: Beatrice Scarpato
Costumes: Eva Coen
Cast: Valeria Golino, Vincenzo Amato, Francesco Casisa, Veronica D'Agostino, Filippo Pucillo, Loffredo Muzzi, Elio Germano.
Producer: Domenico Procacci
Production: Fandango, Les Films Des Tournelles, Roissy Films, Medusa Produzione, Telepiu', Tps Cinema, Rouse Films
Distribution: Medusa

SYNOPSIS

In Lampedusa, an island of fishermen off Sicily, Grazia, the young mother of an adolescent and two young boys, longs for a more independent life and for this reason she is considered mad by her family who will try to commit her to a mental home. In the whole family of poor fishermen she will only be understood by Pasquale, the thirteen-year-old child, nicknamed “Boccanera”.

CRITICAL NOTES

"'Respiro' by Emanuele Crialese, who studied cinema in America, is one of the surprises of the new generation of Italian directors in Cannes. (...) A realistic story, geografically similar to Terra trema, but also extremely metaphorical, in which the director succeeds in telling a kind of loss of the law of gravity raising the story of a neurotic with depressive manias into something more, something older. Thanks to the natural lights, to the fishermen extras, to the faces of Vincenzo Amato and Francesco Casisa; but escpecially to Valeria Golino, in which mirrors ancient fears and contemporary anxieties. The subject of madness and its limits is reinterpreted with a compact narration, which is close to mannerism but expresses a scenery of the soul. (Maurizio Porro)

AWARDS

Gran Premio alla settimana della critica del Festival di Cannes 2002
Nastro d'Argento 2002 per la migliore attrice Valeria Golino
David di Donatello 2003 come miglior produttore a Domenico Procacci