Li as well as the Poet (Io sono Li)

A Jolefilm, Aeternam Films production, along with Rai Cinema, in co-production with Arte France Cinema. Produced by Francesco Bonsembiante, Francesca Feder. Directed by Andrea Segre. Script, Marco Pettenello, Segre.With: Zhao Tao, Rade Sherbedgia, Marco Paolini, Roberto Citran, Giuseppe Battiston, Giordano Bacci, Spartaco Mainardi, Zhong Cheng, Wang Yuan, Amleto Voltolina, Andrea Pennacchi, Wu Guo Quiang, Sara Perini, Federico Hu. (Italian, Mandarin dialogue)Inside the lyrical opening shot of "Li as well as the Poet," lit wax lights drift around the dark expanse water, as voice-over describes china tradition of floating lamps on rivers to guard the soul of celebrated poet Qu Yuan. The digital camera pulls to show not just a Chinese river, but a tub in the cramped Italian apartment. This fakeout can be a telling review of documaker Andrea Segre's first narrative feature, a thin but superbly opalescent immigrant study, showing priority for exquisite, atmospheric detail inside the problem. Gentle pic with moderate arthouse potential should still charm auds round the festival circuit. Core narrative premise in the film, detailing the progressively burgeoning but strictly innocent friendship from the shy Chinese barmaid plus an older Slavic fisherman in the sleepy Italian lagoon town, promises an even more explicit portrait of contrasting cultures than Segre is ultimately considering offering: He's very worried with common encounters, specially the universal energy of poetry, to acquire overtly political about his protagonist's harsh conditions. Shun Li (carried out with affecting passivity by Jia Zhangke's muse Zhao Tao) is certainly an unmarried mother of just one, trapped in the shady immigrant-employment plan requiring her to alter menial jobs within the drop from the hat her bosses' vague promise to deliver her youthful boy over from China, once she's acquired the requisite papers, might be the elusive carrot being dangled before her. Moved in the textile factory in Rome with a dilapidated working men's cafe in Chioggia, a fisherman's community just south of Venice using the famous city's rivers and little of the charm, she's as bewildered by her new atmosphere since the crusty male customers are bemused by her quietly exotic presence. Li finds an unlikely ally in Bepi (Rade Sherbedgia), a extended-acclimatized Eastern European immigrant getting a penchant for rather rudimentary rhyme since the two lonely outsiders find peace of mind in one another peoples company, however, the unrefined Italian community around them evolves progressively careful relating to this perceived Asian thief. Segre is tentative within the depiction of prejudice, as well as the film wants for further immediate conflict, most notoriously since the figures of Li and Bepi are as watery their surroundings. Still, once the material flirts while using maudlin, there is a difficult delicacy in the office here that sees the pic through to the no real surprise denouement. It's not intended slight to convey it's the rapturous watercolor imagery of ace d.p. Luca Bigazzi (a Paolo Sorrentino regular) that provides most likely probably the most vivid poetry in this fine-grained production his evocation of rain-lashed seaside Italia reps the tonal inverse in the honey-dipped Tuscany he conjured in last year's "Licensed Copy." Francois Couturier's elegiac but over-prettified score possibly sells the pathos a touch too hard.Camera (color), Luca Bigazzi editor, Sara Zavarise music, Francois Couturier production designer, Leonardo Scarpa costume designer, Maria Rita Barbera appear (Dolby Digital), Alessandro Zanon. Examined on DVD, London, March. 25, 2011. (London Film Festival -- Cinema Europa Reykjavik Film Festival Venice Film Festival -- Venice Days.) Running time: 92 MIN. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com