A lesbian couple from Italy, wealthy Anna and working-class Mara, are returning home from a vacation in Tunisia. In the back of the car, they find a stowaway, a teenage boy named Anis. Anna unilaterally decides to take Anis in, creating tension in her relationship with Mara. A variety of other factors begin to fray Anna and Mara's lives and especially the bond between them. Although the premise was interesting and the acting was good, the story felt incomplete, with plot elements popping up for no discernible reason — not as misdirection, but more as if the writer didn't know which direction the story should go. Better than some, but not a top selection.
Shelter Me (Riparo), dir. Marco Simon Puccioni, 2006 Italy, 100 min., in Italian with English subtitles
Technorati tags: Shelter Me, Riparo, Frameline, Frameline31, LGBT Film
I like this movie! It was intimate and political, showing how we, gay or not, cannot escape our social class. But, true the ending is open and maybe love will win...ora at least I hope so.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like this movie towards the end. The lesbian parts were wonderful, but the way the director steered the plot down the stretch echoed too much the skeptical sentiments of the boy, who I ended up feeling represented some facets of himself, purity, and innocence more than a view of cultural ignorance. I guessed correctly that this was directed by a male, and I ended up feeling angry. I wanted the boy to just drive off of a cliff.
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