A family of penniless fishermen save African refugees in the middle of the ocean and take in a woman about to give birth.

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With no work or money, times are hard for the residents of a small Italian island located between Africa and Sicily. For this reason, a family of penniless fisherman decides to renovate their garage and live there, so they can rent their apartment to tourists. While the mother has plans to leave during the summer to find work in Sicily, her son and her father save a group of Ethiopian refugees - one of whom is a woman about to give birth - in the middle of the Mediterranean.

Drama unfortunately filmed in a style more appropriate for luxury car advertisements than a subject as serious as Africans emigrating on leaky boats. This film by Emmanuele Crialese, the maker of the well received Respiro, nonetheless does well in setting two diffrent views against each other: that of cynical western youth ready to throw refugees back into the water in order to save local tourism and that of the older generation used to saving sailors in danger despite immigration laws. Poignant despite the stylistic sides it takes.