“THE MACALUSO SISTERS”
a film by Emma Dante
Imagine Chekhov’s Three Sisters (now five), in 1980s Sicily. Adapted from her prize-winning stage play of the same name, Emma Dante’s moving, decades-traversing drama THE MACALUSO SISTERS follows a family of five orphaned sisters living on the top floor of a distressed building in Palermo, who rent pastel-painted doves to weddings and birthdays to earn a living. When a sudden catastrophic seaside event alters the family dynamic, they are left grappling with the outcome. The delicate balance of sisterhood is tested in this accomplished, generation-spanning three-act sophomore feature. In the Financial Times, Wendy Ide writes that THE MACALUSO SISTERS is, “a hauntingly lovely, strikingly unusual portrait of family trauma.” –Film Forum
THE MACALUSO SISTERS premiered in competition at the 2020 Venice International Film Festival where it won the Pasinetti Awards (given by the National Union of Italian Journalists) for Best Film and Best Actress (awarded to the ensemble cast playing the sisters).