Plot: (from Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival)
Every moment of this film is an emotional masterpiece. On their return home from a North African vacation, Anna discovers a stowaway in the back of the car, but decides not to tell her girlfriend Mara, who's sitting right there in the front seat.
It's an impulsive and unilateral decision, followed quickly by another: Anna invites the stowaway, a handsome Moroccan teenage boy named Anis, to live with them. While Anna, who is wealthy, sees Mara as overly emotional, a fragile soul that she needs to protect, she also acts as big sister to the stranger. But Mara, who's working class and suspicious of Anis, comes to see Anna's big-heartedness as both smothering and false. As Anis naively seeks to find a role in the triangle, he finds himself becoming a pawn.
The film's beauty lies in how little of this drama is spoken aloud, but how viscerally we feel the tension throughout. And that's a testament to director Marco S. Puccioni's faith in his remarkable cast. As Anna loses her grip, icy femme Maria de Medeiros precisely exposes every tinge of anxiety. In Mara, the ravishing Antonia Liskova delivers a powerhouse of raw despair and longing. And even Anis, an illegal immigrant entangled in their complex relationship, exudes effortless charisma. A quiet exposé on the tyranny of kindness, Riparo is oftentimes sad but unforgettable.
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