Sparrow is a 1993

1993 in film

The year 1993 in film involved many significant films, including the blockbuster hits Jurassic Park, The Fugitive and The Firm. -Events:...

 Italian

Cinema of Italy

The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...

 drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 directed by Franco Zeffirelli

Franco Zeffirelli

Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....

. It is an adaptation of Giovanni Verga

Giovanni Verga

Giovanni Carmelo Verga was an Italian realist writer, best known for his depictions of life in Sicily, and especially for the short story "Cavalleria Rusticana" and the novel I Malavoglia .-Life and career:The first son of Giovanni Battista Catalano Verga and Caterina Di Mauro,...

's novel, Storia di una capinera and was filmed in Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 in 1993. It stars Angela Bettis

Angela Bettis

Angela Marie Bettis is an American actress, film producer and director best known for her lead roles in the 2002 TV remake of the Stephen King film Carrie, the title character in May , and in Girl, Interrupted as the anorexic girl Janet Webber.-Early life:Bettis was born in Austin, Texas to Mary...

, and premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival

Tokyo International Film Festival

Tokyo International Film Festival is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biannually from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter...

 in October 1993.

Plot synopsis

In cholera-ridden Sicily of 1854, Maria, a future nun is evacuated from her convent home in Catania

Catania

Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...

 to her father's Mount Etna

Mount Etna

Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, close to Messina and Catania. It is the tallest active volcano in Europe, currently standing high, though this varies with summit eruptions; the mountain is 21 m higher than it was in 1981.. It is the highest mountain in...

 shadowed villa. During her stay she falls in love with Nino, a family friend. But things fall apart when Catania is declared safe for her to return to, meaning she must renounce her love and concentrate on serving God.

Cast

• Angela Bettis
  Angela Bettis
  Angela Marie Bettis is an American actress, film producer and director best known for her lead roles in the 2002 TV remake of the Stephen King film Carrie, the title character in May , and in Girl, Interrupted as the anorexic girl Janet Webber.-Early life:Bettis was born in Austin, Texas to Mary...
  
   as Maria
• Johnathon Schaech
  Johnathon Schaech
  Johnathon Schaech is an American actor, writer, and director.-Early life:Schaech was born in Edgewood, Maryland to Joseph, a Baltimore City law enforcement officer, and Joanne Schaech, a human resources executive. He is of German and Italian descent, and was raised Roman Catholic...
  
   as Nino
• Vanessa Redgrave
  Vanessa Redgrave
  Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
  
   as Sister Agata
• Valentina Cortese as Mother Superior
• Frank Finlay
  Frank Finlay
  Francis Finlay, CBE is an English stage, film and television actor.-Personal life:Finlay was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, the son of Margaret and Josiah Finlay, a butcher. A devout Catholic, he belongs to the British Catholic Stage Guild. He was educated at St...
  
   as Father Nunzio
• Sinéad Cusack
  Sinéad Cusack
  Sinéad Moira Cusack is an Irish stage, television and film actress. She has received two Tony Award nominations: once for Best Leading Actress in Much Ado About Nothing , and again for Best Featured Actress in Rock 'n' Roll .-Background:...
  
   as Matilde
• Denis Quilley
  Denis Quilley
  Denis Clifford Quilley OBE was an English theatre, television and film actor who was long associated with the Royal National Theatre....
  
   as Baron Cesaro
• Pat Heywood
  Pat Heywood
  Patricia Heywood in Gretna Green, Scotland) is a British character actress who has appeared in stage productions, movies, and television. Married to Oliver Neville, the former principal of RADA.-Career:...
  
   as Sister Teresa
• Eva Alexander
  Eva Alexander
  Eva Alexander is a British actress and a children's TV presenter. Eva is pronounced "Ava".Until October 2006, she was a continuity presenter on the BBC preschool television channel CBeebies, joining as a replacement for Nicole Davis, who left in February 2006...
  
   as Annetta
• John Castle
  John Castle
  John Castle is an English actor. Castle has acted in theatre, film and television. He is well known for his role as Postumus in the 1976 BBC television adaptation of I, Claudius and for playing Geoffrey in the 1968 film, The Lion in Winter. He also played Dr...
  
   as Giuseppe
• Gareth Thomas
  Gareth Thomas (actor)
  Gareth Thomas is a Welsh actor.Thomas is best known for the part of Roj Blake in the dystopian science fiction television series Blake's 7, but has taken roles in many other films and television programmes, including Adam Brake in Children of the Stones.Thomas trained at RADA and is now an...
  
   as Corrado
• Andrea Cassar as Gigi

Awards and nominations

The film was awarded and nominated for awards in Italy and Portugal.

David di Donatello Awards

• David Award for Best Costume Design (Migliore Costumista) - Piero Tosi
  Piero Tosi
  Piero Tosi is an Italian costume designer. His credits include Bellissima, The Leopard, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Death in Venice, The Night Porter, and La Traviata. He won the David di Donatello for Best Costumes twice, as well as the 50th Anniversary David in 2006...
  
   (won)

Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Nastro d'Argento)

• Silver Ribbon for Best Costume Design - Piero Tosi
  Piero Tosi
  Piero Tosi is an Italian costume designer. His credits include Bellissima, The Leopard, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Death in Venice, The Night Porter, and La Traviata. He won the David di Donatello for Best Costumes twice, as well as the 50th Anniversary David in 2006...
  
   (won)

Gramado Film Festival

• Golden Kikito Award for Best Latin Film (Melhor Filme) - Franco Zeffirelli
  Franco Zeffirelli
  Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....
  
  (nomination)