Baarìa (film) nominated for European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film
Baarìa is a 2009 Italian film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. It was the opening film of the 66th Venice International Film Festival in September 2009.Plot
The film recounts life in the Sicilian town of Bagheria (known as Baarìa in Sicilian), from the 1930s to the 1980s, through the eyes of lovers Peppino (Francesco Scianna) and Mannina (Margareth Madè).
A Sicilian family depicted across three generations: from Cicco to his son Peppino to his grandson Pietro. Touching lightly on the private lives of these characters and their families, the film evokes the loves, dreams and disappointments of an entire community in the province of Palermo over five decades: during the Fascist period, Cicco is a shepherd who finds time to pursue his passion: books, epic poems, the great popular romance novels. In the days when people go hungry and during World War II, his son Peppino witnesses injustice by mafiosi and landowners. He becomes a communist. After the war, he encounters the woman of his life. Her family opposes the relationship because of his political ideas, but the two insist on marrying. They have children and raise their family. 
Subplots include one about a boy running an errand, a living fly locked inside a top, three rocks people try to hit in one throw, a man mutilating himself to avoid having to fight in the war, looting while the U.S. invades Sicily, making clothing from an American parachute, and Peppino's daughter calling her father a fascist for not allowing her to wear a mini-skirt.
Running through the film is the main subplot, related to the history of the Italian left, especially the Communist Party, of which Peppino is a lifelong member. It charts his fight against injustice and eventual disillusionment in the face of corruption and compromise by his fellow politicians.
up for shortlisted for in the running for selected for contending for