Product Details

• Actors: Maria de Medeiros, Antonia Liskova, Mounir Ouadi, Gisella Burinato, Vitaliano Trevisan
• Directors: Marco S. Puccioni
• Writers: Marco S. Puccioni, Heidrun Schleef, Monica Rametta
• Producers: Gustavo Solis-Moya, Mario Mazzarotto
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Italian
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Wolfe Video
• DVD Release Date: October 7, 2008
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001D7W8N6
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #92,068 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Shelter Me" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Anna and Mara return from a holiday abroad, and realize that Anis, a young Moroccan immigrant, managed to hide in their car in order to cross the border to Italy. At first unsure of what to do, they then decide to take him with them. Gradually Anis establishes himself in the life of the couple and for a brief moment, the three manage to help and support each other in an unusual and emotionally intricate relation. Yet this precarious balance is short-lived: Anis loses his job and is rejected by Mara whom he has fallen in love with and Anna has to witness her idyllic domestic arrangement fall to pieces.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Class Differences, September 23, 2008

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

"Shelter Me"

Class Differences

Amos Lassen

In "Shelter Me" (Wolfe), Anna and Mara arrive home after enjoying a holiday abroad. They discover that Anis, a young Moroccan, hid in the trunk of their car so that he could get across the border and enter Italy. The girls have no idea what to do so they decide to take him with them and Anis finds it easy to establish himself in their lives. For a short time, the three are able to support each other and help in emotional and other ways. However, Anis loses his job and Mara rejects him when she realizes that he has fallen in love with her. At the same time, Anna sees that life with Mara is disintegrating.
The movie is really about personal and interpersonal relationships between two lesbian lovers and how the involvement of a male illegal immigrant brings all their problems to the fore. The deterioration of the women's relationship begins early when Anna, who discovers Anis and does not tell Mara. Anna then assumes all responsibly and this is a hint of what is to come. Anis becomes a pawn between the two women and each of them uses him to show power. There is also the problem of class differences between the women.
The acting throughout is excellent and we find them in a situation from which there is no easy exit. The film deals with trust and how issues can affect it. It is easy to find the characters believable as they are both engaging and vulnerable. The film is not a resolved fully but you may not realize it because of the gorgeous cinematography

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Uneven, January 9, 2009

By	Daniel G. Lebryk - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a small Italian Independent film that has so much potential, but about 1/3 of the way in, doesn't deliver. The opening segments are creative, there is an interplay between a handheld, or home movie, and the actual film eye. The editing, camera work and all are done extremely well. Intrigue gets built with Anna discovering a young man, Anis, stowed away in their car. Ana and Mara have unknowingly brought in an illegal alien from Morroco to Italy. The story and filming continue down a creative different style by slowly getting to know Anis. There's a mystery about the two women, this young man, and where will the story lead. The director does an excellent job with camera angles, editing, sound to keep us just barely understanding what is happening.

Sadly when the film reaches about 1/3 in, the camera work, editing and story telling falls into standard melodrama. We're presented with the same old camera work in most movies. The story line denegrates into the standard love triangle. And frankly, I have yet to understand exactly what the complete chaos at the end was supposed to mean, or how it related to what the director was trying to accomplish.

In a nutshell, this film is a love triangle, it happens to be two women together with a man entering the scene. But it is still a standard love triangle movie. And yes the movie ends completely unresolved, but it isn't too hard to imagine, Anis will be caught and put in jail. And the two women will separate. Those are very logical conclusions to this film.

I give this 2 stars for the creative begining work. There are some pretty views of mountains in Italy. The Italian is beautiful. And the two women are alluring. It's just not a ground breaking film, nor particularly compelling story telling.

This is definately an R rated film. There is some nudity. And the translators chose to use the F word a few times. It's also likely, not a topic younger viewers would necessarily enjoy. And it is in Italian with subtitles, no English track is available.

Wolfe releases are usually either spectacularly good or not so good, nothing in between. This sadly falls in the not so good category.

The DVD includes an interview with the director.