The sun-drenched island of Lampedusa, off the south-west coast of Sicily, is a land where life is an endless struggle for the local population. The men head out to sea in their fishing boats, the women toil in the fish-packing factory, and the bare-chested kids roam free around the arid countryside, hunting animals and scrapping with rival gangs.

Grazia (Valeria Golino) is the free-spirited mother of three, who adores her husband Pietro (Vincenzo Amato) and her kids, particularly the two boys Pasquale and Filippo (Francesco Casisa and Filippo Pucillo).

Her mood swings and convulsive fits, however, are regarded with deep suspicion by other members of this close-knit community: she's either "too happy or too sad, too aggressive or too affectionate". Pietro's mother suggests that her daughter-in-law be sent to the mainland for treatment, prompting Grazia to disappear...

The plotting is fairly incidental to the pleasures of this mythical fable, written and directed by Emanuele Crialese, where the elements of the sea and the sun exert such influence over the human characters.

Time in "Respiro" appears to have been suspended - there are no mobile phones or computers or televisions, and half-finished buildings abound - and the film captures the rhythms and the rituals of this isolated society: the Saturday evening stroll, the building of wooden pyres, the way youngsters dive into the water to be thrown fish by the returning sailors. There's an affecting solidarity on display, and equally a restricting conformity to which Grazia rebels.

Evocatively photographed and backed by a resonant saxophone score, "Respiro" is blessed by the vitality of the performances of its almost entirely non-professional cast. And the Greek-Italian Golino, so often relegated in American films to decorative parts, is here rewarded with a rich, challenging role.

She responds magnificently, conveying Grazia's spontaneity, her unselfconscious beauty, and her often childlike interaction with her own kids and misunderstanding adult world.

In Italian with English subtitles.