An ailing woman who has lost her husband helps her younger caregiver find hers in this rama from Italy. Elderly Gemma (Ilaria Occhini) is in poor health and has found herself alone for the first time in years after the death of her husband. Gemma lives in Florence, while her son Enrico (Corso Salani) lives and works in Trieste; he can't get out to see her as often as she'd like and he worries about her, so he hires Angela (Dorotheea Petre), a woman from Romania, to look after Gemma. At first, Gemma makes no secret of the fact she doesn't trust Angela and would prefer that her son come to Florence and keep an eye on her; it doesn't help that Gemma's poor health makes her a difficult patient to look after. But in time Gemma develops a genuine respect for Angela and admires her close relationship with her husband Adrian (Vlad Ivanov), who is still in Romania but stays in touch with phone calls nearly every day. After Angela doesn't hear from Adrian for two weeks, she's convinced that something is wrong and she wants to go home; Gemma isn't in a position to look after herself but she's sympathetic to Angela's dilemma, so Gemma joins Angela as she goes back to Romania in search of Adrian. Mer Nero (aka Black Sea) was the first feature film from writer and director Federico Bondi.~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide