Every sizzling Sicilian summer, hundreds of vacation huts go up on Mondello Beach, welcoming throngs of fun seekers to escape their everyday lives for the season—which, thanks to Europe's economic crisis, is perhaps more necessary this year than ever. Filmmaker Giovanni Totaro sets up camp amid the oil-slicked and Speedo-clad, observing beachgoers from cabana setup to Ferragosto, the end-of-summer public holiday. Cameras capture sun-filled small talk. Slowly, anxieties begin to surface. One family would rather go into debt sunbathing just to keep up appearances, while an enterprising political candidate makes his rounds of the loungers selling an anti-immigrant agenda. Three women return each year and rehearse their act for the final party, and a barman tries to sell every soda he can before the summer ends. Whether it's fun in the sun or heads buried in the sand, this luminously shot idyll offers up a sly and stylish social critique. Myrocia Watamaniuk
Co-presented with Italian Trade Commission and Italian Contemporary Film Festival (ICFF).