Emanuele Crialese returns to Sicily for this beautiful film focusing on the fishing community that has inspired so much of his work. Terraferma revolves around a family whose patriarch stubbornly refuses to admit that times are changing, and that perhaps the sea will not provide him with a livelihood forever. He has a son and a daughter who have both moved on, looking for a better life by embracing the growing opportunities in tourism, a choice that comes with its own set of compromises.
When the family recovers a group of illegals floundering in the sea and find themselves hiding a young pregnant woman, their lives are turned upside down. A humanitarian gesture of short-term assistance soon turns into a different kind of commitment as they come to know this striking and proud woman. Do they turn her in, as they are required to do by law, or do they make other plans?
Crialese has always had a magnificent sense of the landscape of his Sicilian islands and the lives of its poor, working people. Grafted to the hot-button subject of illegal migrants, Terraferma tells its story with boldness and confidence while wearing its social conscience smartly. - Piers Handling, Toronto International Film Festival
Winner, Jury Prize, Venice Film Festival
