Malèna (Monica Bellucci) is the mysterious and beautiful wife of an absent soldier - the object of lust for the local men and of obsessive speculation and suspicion for the women. But as tragic events unfold in her life, increasingly vicious gossip and ostracisation precipitate her fall from grace. All the while she is the object of all-consuming infatuation for our hero, the 13-year-old Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro), who acquires a world-weary understanding of life as he stalks and spies on her.

DID YOU KNOW?
	Tornatore has directed Bellucci before - in a black-and-white advertisement for Dolce and Gabbana.   During filming in Syracuse, the Mafia reportedly burned down sets because of the production's unsanctioned use of extras.

At heart this is a coming-of-age film. The camera tracks Malèna's movements through the streets with the fetishistic prurience and persistence of Renato's eyes. The fantasy sequences in which Renato imagines Malèna and himself in a variety of movie genre parodies pay homage to the golden age of cinema. Indeed, Bellucci herself is shot with the kind of adoring light reminiscent of classic screen goddesses like Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale.

The stylised cameos and frenzied family and crowd scenes are sometimes grating, but Bellucci's and Sulfaro's performances give the film real resonance. Tornatore exploits the political context, but never over-eggs the powerful themes of fickle allegiances, parochial scapegoating, and the linkage of totalitarianism and mass hysteria.