New Release: Purple Sea DVD

Valeria Solarino and Isabella Ragonese are in love in Purple Sea.

Strand Releasing issued Purple Sea on disc on Feb. 22, 2011. A unique, lesbian-themed portrait of family, community and gender roles in a 19th century Italian village, the DVD carries a suggested retail price of $24.99.

Based on the novel Minchia di Re by Giacomo Pilati, Purple Sea (or Viola de mare in its native language) focuses on Angela and Sara (Valeria Solarino and Isabella Ragonese), two young women in 19th century Sicily. Angela isn’t like other girls her age, as she fears nothing and nobody … and she can’t hide her strong feelings for Sara.

To maintain the forbidden relationship the two embark on, Angela changes her outward appearance to disguise herself as a man. The chains that had imprisoned her “alternate” existence suddenly disappear and she becomes powerful, but in her heart, she never denies her identity as a woman. As their relationship intensifies, Angela/Angelo and Sara challenge the rules of society in order to be together.

Directed by Donatella Maiorca and starring internationally renowned starlet Maria Grazia Cucinotta (The Rite), the 2009 film received positive notices on the film festival circuit, particularly as such gay-and-lesbian-themed gatherings as Los Angeles’ Outfest, San Francisco’s Frameline and New York’s Newfest.

No bonus features are on the DVD for Purple Sea, which is presented in Italian with English subtitles.

 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.