DTS HD MA 5.1 (Italian)

Italian writer and director Giuseppe Tornatore was born in the small village of Bagheria on the island of Sicily in 1956. The life and culture of his home village has had a tremendous influence on his work. Many of his films have an autobiographical nature to them that he takes no pains to disguise. Earlier we reviewed his love letter to movies with Cinema Paradiso, which also took place in Bagheria. This time we explore five decades of life in that same village, known here by its nickname and the title of the film: Baaria.

The journey begins in the 1920's Peppino ("Giuseppe") Tornatore is a young boy whose services have been sold to a local shepherd to feed the family. He learns the trade but discovers it's not what he wishes to make of his life. When the Communist Party begins to make inroads in his village, Peppino is attracted to the message and soon works his way to becoming an important leader of the party. He falls in love with Mannina (Made), and the two must elope because he has no personal fortune and her parents are against the relationship. It is up to Peppino's father to take the ostracized couple into his own home when her family rejects them both. While there is no real plot here, the film follows the young boy through 50 years of life in the village and beyond, taking in the various historical events that effected Sicily at the time. Fascism and eventual World War take their toll. Peppino has a front-row seat to the land riots that rocked the country. His party loyalties cause serious trouble for the man as he goes up against both the established government and even the Mafia.