Buy Shelter Me on DVD

Shelter Me

DVD

More Info

Usually ships in
5-10 days

$19.99 (20% off)
List Price: ~~$24.99~~

When new special editions or price reductions are announced.

Synopsis

A beautiful and wealthy lesbian couple take a Moroccan teenager into their home in this gripping narrative dealing with issues of race, class and homophobia.

Review

As Anna and Mara are stopped at the border while returning home from their vacation in Tunisia, Anna discovers an Arab stowaway named Anis hiding in their car. She quietly helps smuggle him into Italy, unbeknownst to her lover. Despite the couple's disagreement over what to do with the boy, they impulsively decide to take him into their home, providing him with all of the spoils that go along with it -- food, clothes and a warm bed. In line to inherit her family's successful shoe manufacturing business, Anna sets up Anis with a job there. Her new pet project strains her already frail relationship with her alluring, live-in girlfriend. Mara (who looks like a blonde Hilary Swank) also works at the shoe factory -- another product of her partner's good intentions -- and struggles to maintain her own identity and look after her dying father. This unconventional family somehow starts to function as a unit, but tensions soon mount as Anis continually questions why two women are sleeping in the same bed, Mara becomes more and more detached from everything and Anna longs for her mother's approval. Shelter Me is a superbly crafted film that shows how, despite their good intentions, these characters and their idiosyncrasies might bring down the delicate balance that they have all grown to need. (Italian with English subtitles)

-- Kelly Burkhardt

Product Format Information

DVD : $19.99

Availability: Usually ships in
5-10 days
Close Caption: No
Region Code: 1
Catalog #: DV2683512

Studio : Wolfe Releasing

Languages: Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (Primary) , English Subtitles
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
Extras: Trailers

Customer Reviews

Class Differences

Amos Lassen wrote on 12/27/2011:

“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.