Jatimari - The Refuge was filmed in the woods of the Madonie mountains, in the province of Palermo. The title itself, Jastimari, a word of Sicilian origin meaning "to curse," underscores the archaic and ritualistic nature of the story, set in places steeped in rites and legends. The film is partly performed in Arbëreshë, an ancient Albanian ethnolinguistic minority language historically spoken in Southern Italy. This stylistic choice contributes to the film's timeless, suspended atmosphere.
Jatimari - The Refuge was filmed in the woods of the Madonie mountains, in the province of Palermo. The title itself, Jastimari, a word of Sicilian origin meaning "to curse," underscores the archaic and ritualistic nature of the story, set in places steeped in rites and legends. The film is partly performed in Arbëreshë, an ancient Albanian ethnolinguistic minority language historically spoken in Southern Italy. This stylistic choice contributes to the film's timeless, suspended atmosphere.
In the remote Madonie mountains of Sicily, ten-year-old Lele and his brother Angelo live on an isolated farm with their parents, surrounded by centuries-old woods and ominous silences and following strict rules to survive an outside world that has become too dangerous. The arrival of a man and his daughters shatters the family’s fragile balance. Nothing will ever be the same as the new members bring chaos and reveal the tragic truth about the boys’ parents to Lele and Angelo. This discovery unleashes a violent chain reaction that culminates in conflict: the evil they tried so hard to avoid has now reached them.
