"Shun Li and the Poet"

I was attracted to this movie because it was set in Venice. I was looking forward to beautiful scenes of one of my favorite cities in the world. But alas, it takes place in one of the grittier fishing villages in the lagoon. That aside, this is a wonderful yet subtle movie. It centers around a Chinese immigrant who works in a bar to pay off her debt to immigrate to Italy and raise enough money to be reunited with her young son. She befriends an older Yugoslavian immigrant and the story is about their relationship. The movie is slow moving and there isn't much drama except when some of the locals turn on her because they feel she's just a gold-digger. A very moving little film.
4 1/2 stars out of 5.