CINEMA doesn't get more challenging than this. An adaptation of Elio Vittorini's anti-fascist novel of 1939, "Coversazione in Sicilia", "Sicilia!" is a solemn exploration of the social-political life of Sicilian culture through the eyes of a man returning home after an absence of fifteen years.

Grasping more than this is difficult. "Sicilia" is highly stylised, with dialogue that is delivered deliberately in humourless and flat tones. Often it is less dialogue and more like a succession of monologues, both personal and about living in Sicily (food and land feature a lot). The most distinguishing feature of this difficult film is the long drawn-out static camera shots. At times, the length of the shots are excruciating, particularly when, at one point during a shot of an empty landscape, the soundtrack cuts out altogether for several minutes. Don't ask why.

One for hard core avant-garde cinephiles only.