Sailing Home

A revelatory debut from photographer Vincenzo Marra, which was awarded prizes for best film at the International Week of Film Critics in Venice and for best director in Valencia. It is a brooding, naturalistic tale, following a group of fishermen who risk their lives fishing illegally in the strait dividing Sicily from North Africa. The crew converse in gruff Neapolitan dialect and the dialogue is often philosophical, yet it's the long, speechless shots which seem most contemplative. Played in dialect by non-professional actors, Tornando a casa dwells carefully and lyrically on the relationship between man and sea.