Donatella Finocchiaro

Unlike most films in the Mafia genre, Angela shows Mafia life purely from the female perspective. Angela is married to the mob and her husband Saro (Mario Pupella) runs a shoe shop, which is a front for a drugs operation. Angela participates in her husband’s business by delivering drugs disguised in shoeboxes. But to the men in her life she is eternally on the sidelines and is trapped in a world of drudgery and limitation until Masino (Andrea di Stefano) appears and turns her world on its head. Ingratiating herself to Saro, he forms a more dangerous liaison with Angela. Both are aware this affair threatens to put their livelihoods and more importantly their lives in danger. As passion simmers and threatens to explode, events spiral slowly out of control. (Optimum Releasing)Read More »

Almost exclusively featuring his family, Bellocchio filmed over a ten year period with segments shot from 1999 to 2008. It begins when Elena (Bellocchio’s daughter, and an incredibly natural performer) is five. Elena’s mother, Sara (Finocchiaro), is an actress and is often away from home so Elena spends much of her time with her uncle Pier Giorgio (Bellocchio’s son), a frustrated artist. They live in the small town of Bobbio (Bellocchio’s hometown) with Pier Giorgio’s spinster aunts (Letizia and Maria Luisa Bellocchio).

Over ten years, the film follows these difficult relationships as the characters come and go from Bobbio, and Bellocchio captures the hopes, disappointments and yearnings of his own family. Moments from Bellocchio’s other films including Fist in His Pocket and The Nanny are also interspersed throughout as quick flashes that relate to the family’s onscreen drama.Read More »

Two women, an Island dweller and a foreigner: one dramatically influences the life of the other. But they both share the same desire for a different future, a better life for their children and the dream of the mainland. Terraferma is the desired destination of those travelling by sea, but it may also turn out to be an island with its deep-rooted traditions.
The Pucillo family has to come to terms with immobility: Ernesto is 70 years old and he’d do anything to avoid having to scrap his fishing boat. His grandson Filippo is 20. His father was lost at sea and he finds himself caught up “in time“ between his grandfather Ernest and his uncle Nino, who gave up fishing in favour of “baiting“ tourists. His young, widowed mother, Giulietta, senses that this island’s frozen, immutable time has turned them all into strangers and that there is no future for her nor for her son Filippo. For there to be a future they must have the courage to leave.Read More »