I have just finished watching an Italian film written and directed by Emanuele Crialese, called Respiro, starring Valeria Golino, Vincenzo Amato, and Francesco Casisa. It is set on an island called Lampedusa, near western Sicilia. It is very different from any other Italian film I have seen so far; extremely gritty and pared-back with a haunting soundtrack, creating a tension. Respiro is realist while also containing an air of the mythical.
Grazia (Valeria Golino), is the wife of a fisherman named Pietro (Vincenzo Amato), and mother of a teenage girl and two sons. She works along with the other women tinning fish, but becomes fed up with such a mundane life, and behaves irrationally and erratically. At times sweet and docile, other times impulsive and hysterical. As the problems escalate, her family soon comes to the decision that she must get clinical help from a doctor in Milan, but she refuses to go. It is Grazia's son Pasquale (Francesco Casisa) who will do anything to protect his mother.
