On a Sicilian island, the elderly Ernesto (Mimmo Cuticchio) and his grandson, Filippo (Filippo Pucillo), are trying to scrape a living from the dying Mediterranean by fishing. What they are finding instead of fish are boatloads of illegal immigrants from Africa, and the government’s policy is that those who fall in the sea should be left there.
Emanuele Crialese’s film burns with a sense of this situation’s inhumanity, and he gives a palpable sense of life in a place where the beauty attracts tourists, but the natives are barely getting by. Filippo’s mother (Donatella Finocchiaro) rents out their home to three pouty college-age mainlanders, while the family must live in a windowless, dark garage.
Matters become urgent when Ernesto and Filippo pull a group of Africans out of the water and wind up sheltering a pregnant woman (Timnit T.) and her young son.
Europe’s immigration dilemma was also the focus of Aki Kaurismaki’s winsome “Le Havre,” and the Africans themselves were front and center in Moussa Touré’s “La Pirogue.” This film is somewhat less effective; Crialese’s message seems to take priority over a deeper sense of individuals.
The most resonant scene comes when Filippo takes a tourist out on a boat at night, and they find themselves nearly capsized by frantic, drowning immigrants. It’s an obvious metaphor, but one with real emotional impact, and it makes Filippo’s final decision on what to do about the family they’re sheltering all the more gripping.