The Macaluso Sisters is a poignant story involving three generations of actors portraying five sisters from the beginning to the end of their lives, Set in 1985 Sicily this film follows the 70-year metamorphosis of the five orphaned Macaluso sisters: Maria (played by Eleonora de Luca & Simona Malato), Pinuccia (Anita Pomario, Donatella Finocchiaro, & Ileana Rigano), Lia (Susanna Piraino, Serena Barone, & Maria Rosaria Alati), Katia (Alissa Maria Orlando, Laura Giordani, & Rosalba Bologna), and Antonella (Viola Pusateri). It is a film about time, memory, things that last, people who stay even after death, and old age as an incredible achievement of life.  

Quotes in the Press: : 

“A deeply poignant story involving three generations of actors portraying five sisters from the beginning to the end of their lives… Doves flutter, girls chatter, life sputters on — and sometimes gutters out — in Emma Dante’s tempestuous and touching sophomore feature THE MACALUSO SISTERS. To imagine the decades-long catch-and-release sweep of a single lifespan and condense it into one sub-90-minute film is a feat; to do so about multiple interconnected lives without losing definition is even more impressive. Perhaps it’s the Italian playwright’s experience with stage dramaturgy that allows her to perform this telescoped trapeze act with such elegance, but even so, the skill with which Dante adapts her own play, marshaling three sets of actors playing the same characters at three different phases of life, and brings it soaring to fully cinematic life is remarkable. In just her second feature after the taut street-stand-off drama A STREET IN PALERMO seven years ago, Dante sets a firm seal upon her cross-disciplinary emergence as a director of unusually vivid empathy.” – Jessica Kiang, Variety 

"Both touching and universally understandable, the theme is how an untimely death destroys the fragile fabric that binds a family together.” - Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter 

“FOUR STARS! It is a touching story, expertly told.” - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian 

“The women’s story at its heart is likely to touch a chord everywhere with audiences” - Lee Marshall, Screen Daily 

“Hauntingly lovely” – Wendy Ide, Financial Times