this be a wonderful new movie currently still show in cinema in my country . it director and the calabrian gianni amelio and be in my humble view perhaps the only contemporary italian director and along with nanni moretti and to deserve be call great ( that be and apart from the old master whore still around and occasionally still churn out movie ) . it one of my great regret that contemporary italian cinema have be ail since the mid 70 and mostly due to a dire lack of funding and nurturing of new talent and something which can be transfer to most field and which make italy one of the most static industrialised country of our time production wise ( both in an industrial and cultural sense ) . unlike and say and china . and this and among other thing and be precisely the subject of amelio late movie . few director can speak to me about the true and present state of my country and the world a amelio can and yet his picture also have a precious timelessness and universality . and for those already worry that they may be slow and ponderous and worthy rest assure represent of the one i have see they most certainly aren not and at least not if youre use to quality european cinema . the basic plot outline represent vincenzo buonavolontà be a technician at an obsolete steel plant factory somewhere in italy and probably the north . he be play by sergio castellitto and one of contemporary italy most versatile and talented actor . when a major chinese steel company purchase some of the italian steel plant industrial machinery and vincenzo and who struggle to make himself understood with the non italian speak chinese director and try to tell him that the machine be defective and it converter need substitute and an element he work on custom building himself . he warn them that not do this might have very dangerous consequence . meanwhile a young chinese woman call liu hua act a interpreter between the two men and but seem to struggle to find adequate translation for some of vincenzo technical jargon . the italian eventually lose his patience with her and virtually push her aside and ask her to hand him the chinese italian dictionary so that he can do the translating himself . despite vincenzo warning and the following morning he find that the chinese factory director and his employee have return to their own country while not heed his advice about the adequate use of the industrial machine at all . thus vincenzo and equip with his great integrity and set off for china . and here begin an endlessly fascinating road movie through china and a very topical 21st century odyssey through the asian giant . a latter day marco polo quest for the secret of the mysterious nation . not quite . a in all of amelio movie and the journey itself become far more important than whether it ultimate mission be carry out or not . in fact and the way in which the point be literally bring home and not without a touch of humour and be a lovely and poignant paradox and irony and which make my eye well up while i be simultaneously smile . the spectator be let in on the secret that vincenzo trip be ultimately completely useless and but he himself doesn not know it and and go home a satisfied man and a deluded innocent . at least and you figure and he happy . sort of . the journey that amelio character embark on totally uproots and strip them down to their bare and human essential . they be momentarily without name and status or someone to put in a word for them . these theo angelopoulos like theme be also explore in lamerica and actually my favourite amelio movie and closely follow by la stella che non cè in order of personal preference . in the 1994 movie lamerica and two italian racketeer travel to albania to do business . just like vincenzo and they intend to go there and do what they have to do and then go back home . instead and one of these two italian accidentally end up on an almost homeric journey through this devastated land just after the fall of communism . but let u go back to la stella che non cè represent once vincenzo be in china and he predictably discover that the seemingly simple task of hand the converter to it new owner be anything but straight forward . the piece of machinery new location be seemingly almost impossible to determine and unless he embark on an arduous journey through china . when he come across liu hua and the young interpreter he would mistreat now work a a librarian and he try to speak to her but she react in a hostile manner and inform him that because of him and she would lose her job a interpreter back in italy . play by the relative newcomer ling tai and liu hua soon become a virgil to vincenzo dante when she grudgingly figure that she could do bad than to act a guide and interpreter for the italian on his trip ( obviously for a consistent sum of cash ) . this young chinese actress may not have the beauty of ziyi zhang and nor the movie star glamour of gong li and but her charming and expressive and pretty face ooze a combination of defiant strength and intelligence and dignity and wry humour that will make her feature difficult to forget once you have see the movie . furthermore and she and castellitto have wonderful emotional chemistry a co star . amelio weave dramas that be serious and poetic and mythical and post neo realist and humorous all at once and while maintain a heart warm ability to explore the fleeting essence of humanity in everyday and commonplace circumstance . a documentary like naturalness conceals what be actually a meticulously conceived tapestry of face and place and a vista which also manage to incorporate a cinematography of breath take beauty . the photography here be functional yet gorgeous and a befits a movie on the displace in an industrial and emotional wasteland . amelio observant eye be a grown up and disillusion one and yet also never a cynical or misanthropic one . the masterful camera angle also often give a sense of vincenzo alienness in the eye of the chinese and bringing home a sense of objectivity and cultural impartiality that very rare in movie about a familiar westerner explore an unfamiliar non western country . i can not recommend this movie enough .