GOLDEN DOOR ("Nuovomondo", 2006)

How much are you willing to lose in search of a better life? This month, we're taking a look at a story about a poor Sicilian family who must ask themselves this very question as they embark on a pan-Atlantic migration to the new world. Join us as we discuss Emanuele Crialese's hauntingly surreal depiction of life in transition at the turn of the 20th century...
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GOLDEN DOOR ("Nuovomondo", 2006)
Dir. by Emanuele Crialese
Available to rent on Amazon Prime or AppleTV. Also streaming on Kanopy.

Can a world seen only in dreams ever compare to reality? It's the early 1900s and Salvatore and his family have received a sign from god. The widower and his two sons have been having visions of a New World where vegetables grow so big they need to be carried by wheelbarrow, and this far-off land of possibility and excess poses an attractive alternative to the mountainous Sicilian landscape where they currently live. Rounding up his boys and his elderly mother, Salvatore books passage on an ocean liner stuffed with similar families in similar situations - displaced souls who have chosen their own displacement carefully, betting on a brighter future across the sea. But there is one amongst them who sticks out: a taciturn young British woman with a mysterious past that seems to drag behind her even in the ship's churning wake. As Salvatore finds himself inevitably drawn to her, the question hangs in the air - what is she seeking in the New World? What is anybody?

A compellingly dreamlike portrayal of the hopes, fears, and endless uncertainties that characterize the experience of mass migration, Golden Door takes a familiar period piece narrative and renders it freshly enigmatic with its strange atmosphere, quietly devastating cinematic flourishes, and a good bit of surreal flair. Let's talk about it!

*As always, this is a movie discussion group—we invite you to watch the film on your own ahead of time, and come ready to discuss.*