Terraferma (film)

2011 film

Terraferma

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Emanuele Crialese
Written by|

* Emanuele Crialese
* Vittorio Moroni

Produced by|

* Marco Chimenz
* Giovanni Stabilini
* Riccardo Tozzi
* Fabio Massimo Cacciatori

Starring|

* Filippo Pucillo
* Donatella Finocchiaro
* Mimmo Cuticchio
* Giuseppe Fiorello
* Timnit T.
* Claudio Santamaria

Cinematography| Fabio Cianchetti
Edited by| Simona Paggi
Music by| Franco Piersanti

Production
companies

Cattleya
France 2 Cinéma
CNC

Distributed by| 01 Distribution

Release dates

* 4 September 2011 (2011-09-04) (Venice Film Festival)
* 7 September 2011 (2011-09-07) (Italy)

Running time

| 88 minutes
Country| Italy
Languages| Italian
France
Budget| €7.85 million[1]

Terraferma is a 2011 Italian drama film directed by Emanuele Crialese, who co-wrote the screenplay with Vittorio Moroni.[2] The film chronicles the intensification of the refugee crisis in Insular Italy in the beginning of the 2010's.

The film had its world premiere at the 68th Venice International Film Festival, and was selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards,[3][4] but it did not make the final shortlist.[5]

## Plot

[edit]

On Linosa, fishermen are punished for saving illegal immigrants (refugees) from the sea and, back on shore, letting them go, because this amounts to facilitating illegal immigration. Therefore young local Filippo does not allow them on his boat. After witnessing several deaths, Filippo changes his mind and helps a family (a mother, a little boy and a newborn baby) adrift at the Mediterranean sea to arrive at the Italian mainland.

## Cast

[edit]

* Filippo Pucillo as Filippo
* Donatella Finocchiaro as Giulietta
* Mimmo Cuticchio as Ernesto
* Giuseppe Fiorello as Nino
* Timnit T. as Sara
* Claudio Santamaria as Santamaria
* Tiziana Lodato as Maria

## Production

[edit]

The film was produced through Italy's Cattleya with 10% co-production support from France, including 200,000 euro from France 2 Cinéma and money from the CNC. The total budget was €7.85 million.[1]

## Release

[edit]

The film had its world premiere at the 68th Venice International Film Festival where it was screened in the main competition,[6] winning the Special Jury Prize.[7]

It was released in Italian theaters on 7 September 2011 through 01 Distribution.[8]

## Reception

[edit]

### Critical response

[edit]

Terraferma has an approval rating of 67% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 reviews, and an average rating of 6.3/10.[9] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10]

Jay Weissberg of Variety described it as "a well-made movie with no pretension but also no crying need to be at a major film festival."[11] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter called it "a morally passionate social drama, muted by overly familiar storytelling."[12] Gary Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The thematically rich production is grounded in deep moral and emotional reflection."[13] Chuck Wilson of The Village Voice called it predictable and heavy-handed.[14]

## See also

[edit]

* List of submissions to the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
* List of Italian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
* List of Italian films of 2011
* Movies about immigration to Italy

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Lemercier, Fabien (2011-07-18). "Terraferma spearheads Elle Driver's line-up". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2011-07-31.
2. ^ Smith, Ian Hayden (2012). International Film Guide 2012. p. 155\. ISBN 978-1-908215-01-7.
3. ^ "Oscar/ Terraferma di Crialese è il candidato italiano". ANSA. Archived from the original on 2012-12-18. Retrieved 2011-09-28.
4. ^ "63 Countries Vie for 2011 Foreign Language Film Oscar". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
5. ^ "9 Foreign Language Films Vie for Oscar". Retrieved 2012-01-19.
6. ^ "Venezia 68: International competition of feature films". Venice. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-07-31.
7. ^ Jennings, Sheri (2011-09-28). "Terraferma chosen as Italy's foreign Oscar submission". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
8. ^ "Terraferma". MyMovies.it. Retrieved 2011-07-31.
9. ^ "Terraferma (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
10. ^ "Terraferma". Metacritic.
11. ^ Weissberg, Jay (2011-11-04). "Review: 'Terraferma'". Variety. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
12. ^ Young, Deborah (2011-09-04). "Terraferma: Venice Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
13. ^ Goldstein, Gary (2013-08-07). "Review: Better angels inhabit 'Terraferma'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
14. ^ Wilson, Chuck (2013-07-24). "Predictability and Heavy-handed Storytelling in Terraferma". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2014-04-06.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website (in Italian)
* Terraferma at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Italian submissions for Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

1947–1960|

* Shoeshine (1947)
* Bicycle Thieves (1949)
* The Walls of Malapaga (1950)
* La Strada (1956)
* Nights of Cabiria (1957)
* Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)
* The Great War (1959)
* Kapo (1960)

1961–1980|

* La Notte (1961)
* The Four Days of Naples (1962)
* 8½ (1963)
* Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1964)
* Marriage Italian Style (1965)
* The Battle of Algiers (1966)
* China Is Near (1967)
* The Girl with the Pistol (1968)
* Fellini Satyricon (1969)
* Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
* The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971)
* Roma (1972)
* Amarcord (1974)
* Scent of a Woman (1975)
* Seven Beauties (1976)
* A Special Day (1977)
* I nuovi mostri (1978)
* To Forget Venice (1979)
* A Leap in the Dark (1980)

1981–2000|

* Three Brothers (1981)
* The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982)
* And the Ship Sails On (1983)
* Where's Picone? (1984)
* Macaroni (1985)

* Summer Night (1986)
* The Family (1987)
* The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988)
* Cinema Paradiso (1989)
* Open Doors (1990)
* Mediterraneo (1991)
* The Stolen Children (1992)
* The Great Pumpkin (1993)
* Lamerica (1994)
* The Star Maker (1995)
* My Generation (1996)
* The Best Man (1997)
* Life Is Beautiful (1998)
* Not of this World (1999)
* One Hundred Steps (2000)

2001–2020|

* The Son's Room (2001)
* Pinocchio (2002)
* I'm Not Scared (2003)
* The Keys to the House (2004)
* Don't Tell (2005)
* Golden Door (2006)
* The Unknown Woman (2007)
* Gomorrah (2008)
* Baarìa (2009)
* The First Beautiful Thing (2010)
* Terraferma (2011)
* Caesar Must Die (2012)
* The Great Beauty (2013)
* Human Capital (2014)
* Don't Be Bad (2015)
* Fire at Sea (2016)
* A Ciambra (2017)
* Dogman (2018)
* The Traitor (2019)
* Notturno (2020)

2021–present|

* The Hand of God (2021)
* Nostalgia (2022)
* Io capitano (2023)
* Vermiglio (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Venice Film Festival Grand Jury Prize

1951–1968|

* A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
* The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird / Mandy (1952)
* Executive Suite (1954)
* The Lovers / La sfida (1958)
* The Magician (1959)
* Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
* Peace to Him Who Enters (1961)
* Vivre sa vie (1962)
* The Fire Within / Introduction to Life (1963)
* The Gospel According to St. Matthew / Hamlet (1964)
* I Am Twenty / Modiga mindre män / Simon of the Desert (1965)
* Chappaqua / Yesterday Girl (1966)
* China Is Near / La Chinoise (1967)
* Our Lady of the Turks / Le Socrate (1968)

1981–2000|

* Sweet Dreams / They Don't Wear Black Tie (1981)
* Imperative (1982)
* Biquefarre (1983)
* Favorites of the Moon (1984)
* Tangos, the Exile of Gardel (1985)
* A Tale of Love / Wild Pigeon (1986)
* Hip Hip Hurrah! (1987)
* Camp de Thiaroye (1988)
* And Then There Was Light (1989)
* An Angel at My Table (1990)
* The Divine Comedy (1991)
* Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician (1992)
* Bad Boy Bubby (1993)
* Natural Born Killers (1994)
* God's Comedy / The Star Maker (1995)
* Brigands (1996)
* Ovosodo (1997)
* Terminus Paradis (1998)
* The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
* Before Night Falls (2000)

2001–present|

* Dog Days (2001)
* House of Fools (2002)
* The Kite (2003)
* The Sea Inside (2004)
* Mary (2005)
* Daratt (2006)
* I'm Not There / The Secret of the Grain (2007)
* Teza (2008)
* Soul Kitchen (2009)
* Essential Killing (2010)
* Terraferma (2011)
* Paradise: Faith (2012)
* Stray Dogs (2013)
* The Look of Silence (2014)
* Anomalisa (2015)
* Nocturnal Animals (2016)
* Foxtrot (2017)
* The Favourite (2018)
* An Officer and a Spy (2019)
* New Order (2020)
* The Hand of God (2021)
* Saint Omer (2022)
* Evil Does Not Exist (2023)
* Vermiglio (2024)

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