Outside Rome, there is a factory almost entirely outfitted by immigrants working to pay off their debt to the “brokers” who brought them to Italy. Among them is Shun Li (Tao Zhao), a Chinese woman in her 30s who saves her earnings in hoping to send for her young son who remains in China.
Shun Li is later reassigned to bartend at a small tavern outside of Venice. Here in the island community of Chioggia, Li is thrusted into serving a close-knit clique of fishermen, among them Bepi (Rade Šerbedžija), an immigrant from former Yugoslavia.
Sharing customs from homes they’ve left behind and relating through their mutual love of poetry, Shun Li and Bepi begin an unexpected and unapproved friendship. Their friendship is far from scandalous and passionate, but instead is achingly fragile and tender.
The community falls victim to xenophobic speculations of Shun Li’s intentions to exploit the widowed Bepi to become a legal citizen.
While this is Italian director Andrea Segre’s first fictional film, its themes stay true to the social commentary of his earlier works, which focus primarily on migration and its social impact between ethnic groups.
The decision to branch away from non-fiction format was a fairly intimate one. Segre’s mother was from Chioggia and he grew up visiting the small community in the summers.
It was during one of these vacations that he found inspiration for the film: “I still remember my encounter with a woman who could have been Shun Li.” Segre said in an introduction to his film at the Venice Days Film Festival in 2011.
“It was in a typical Veneto pub, where local fishermen had been going for generations. The memory of this woman’s face, so extraneous and foreign to these places weathered by time and worn by habit, has never left me. Her past, her history, the inspiration for the story all came to me just looking at her. What kind of relationships could she build in a region like mine, so little accustomed to change?”
Director Andrea Segre set out to create an honest work that could speculate about how immigrants might be treated in a community rooted in unwavering tradition. In the end, the story he created is convincing and stirs the conscience.
Beyond its sociological motives, the tranquil scenery and tender bond between the two title characters weave together to create a film that is nothing short of poetic.
The movie will open Jan. 11 at Bluelight Cinemas at the Oaks Shopping Center.