The main character used to be a ruthless hired assassin who carried out hits with coldness and contempt. She feels a visceral hatred for everything that does not belong to her language, her race and especially her religion, specialising in the violent assassination of immigrants. Now she spends her nights on the beach where she has a rather unusual job as a "grave finder": her task is to collect all the drowned corpses of the migrants who try to get to Italy from Africa and that the sea brings to the shore. She hears what the dead say, their fears and complaints, and listens to their suffering, their anxieties and disappointments.
A spotlight on Italian maestro Lina Wertmüller, the visionary and groundbreaking Italian writer-director who worked side by side with Federico Fellini and went on to make more than 30 films becoming the first woman ever to receive Academy Award nominations for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Film. A career tribute documenting her 50th anniversary in film enriched with interviews from many internationally renowned artists and critics.
A boy who grew up in a native Sicilian Village returns home as a famous director after receiving news about the death of an old friend. Told in a flashback, Salvatore reminiscences about his childhood and his relationship with Alfredo, a projectionist at Cinema Paradiso. Under the fatherly influence of Alfredo, Salvatore fell in love with film making, with the duo spending many hours discussing about films and Alfredo painstakingly teaching Salvatore the skills that became a stepping stone for the young boy into the world of film making. The film brings the audience through the changes in cinema and the dying trade of traditional film making, editing and screening. It also explores a young boy's dream of leaving his little town to foray into the world outside.