TARANTELLA

This highly evocative story of a young woman coming to grips with her mother's death and her own ethnic heritage is a small and stunning gem in the wealth of American independent cinema. Mira Sorvino portrays Diana Di Sorella, a young and very ambitious photographer who has shut out the memories of her past and begun a new life as far away from her old Italian-American community as she can get. Stunned by the news of her mother's death, Diana reluctantly agrees to return to her childhood home to pack up her mother's belongings and prepare the house for sale. In the process, she finds herself confronting not only her mother's past, but her own sense of identity and her family history.

A simple plot synopsis cannot do justice to the manifold pleasures this very special film provides. Sorvino's performance is wonderful, and director Helen De Michiel's gorgeously textured rendering of an emotional journey thorugh the secrets of the soul provides abundant proof she is a talent to be reckoned with.

Directed by Helen De Michiel; Screenplay by Richard Hoblock and Helen De Michiel; Produced by George LaVoo; the cast includes: Mira Sorvino, Rose Gregorio, Matthew Lilliard, Stephen Spinella, Frank Pellegrino.

--From The 1995 Seattle Film Festival