Antonio Folletto

Drowning in debt, two brothers concoct a plan to scam a wealthy heiress and save their home in Naples — but unexpected love soon complicates the scheme.

Academy-Award winner Juliette Binoche gives one of the finest performances of her career in this dazzling and emotionally rich debut feature from Italian wunderkind Piero Messina, who previously worked as the assistant director on Paolo Sorrentino's Oscar-winning The Great Beauty. In the vast rooms of a beautiful Sicilian villa, Anna (Binoche) receives an unexpected guest. Twenty-something Jeanne (the gorgeous Lou de Laâge) has arrived from France, declaring herself to be the girlfriend of Anna's son, Giuseppe, who has invited her to the house to spend Easter together. But this is news to Anna, and Giuseppe is not yet there. Despite the disruption to her routine, Anna invites her young guest to stay, and as the two women await Giuseppe's arrival, they slowly begin to form a connection. Jeanne, dislocated and a little mystified at first, gradually gives in to the charms of the volcanic island. She swims in the nearby lake and makes new friends, while Anna - watched over by a long-time family friend - comes out of her shell. Yet still, her son's absence remains unexplained.

After he is caught laundering money for the mob, an unscrupulous accountant agrees to testify against the criminals to avoid jail time. Sentenced to community service, he finds himself working at a clinic for people with mental and physical impairments, where he is slowly redeemed by his love for a beautiful psychologist and his friendship with a severely disabled man.