Italian Journey: Shun Li and the Poet

Director: Andrea Segre

Written by Andrea Segre, Marco Pettenello
Music by François Couturier
DOP: Luca Bigazzi
Edited by Sara Zavarise

Cast: Tao Zhao, Rade Šerbedžija, Marco Paolini, Giuseppe Battiston

Shun Li has been working in a textile workshop in the outskirts of Rome for eight years trying to obtain the documents to bring her son to Italy. She is suddenly transferred to Chioggia, a small island town situated in the Venetian lagoon to work as a bartender in a tavern. Bepi, a fisherman of Slavic origin, nicknamed by friends as "the Poet", has been visiting the little inn for years. Their meeting is a poetic escape from loneliness, a silent dialogue between different cultures. It is a journey into the heart of a deep lagoon, known to be a mother and birthplace of identity. But the friendship between Shun Li and Bepi disturbs both communities, Chinese and Chioggia, which hinders this new journey, which perhaps is simply still too scary. They part ways but, like the ocean, are drawn back together again.