La Giara (The Water Jug)

La Giara begins in Sicily in 1909, when adolescent Nunzio Minissale's imperiouscutting in line at the town water fountain leads to breaking his aunt's giara -thewater jug. This incident unleashes a lifetime curse that crosses the Atlantic fromSicily to the New World. La Giara becomes a symbol of the family's rupture and itseventual reunion, challenging three generations of Minissale women. Nunzio thinks he wears the pantaloni in his family until he instigates an incidentthat prompts his wife and two daughters to disappear suddenly. Leaving behindtheir successful family bridal business in Philadelphia, they use aliases and take across-country train out West. When the now wealthy and determined Nunzio finally locates them, he learnsthat his "e;bimbas"e; are more resourceful than he imagined. Desperate to win themback, Nunzio purchases an impressive mansion where he creates a seeminglycharmed lifestyle. However, their fairytale palazzo, full of mirrors, fountains,opera, and singing birds, becomes a gilded cage that the Minissale women long toescape. In this inspiring story, long-shattered relations are eventually healed by Nunzio'sgrandchildren, who discover that la giara, their symbolic container of traditions-somebroken, some lost, some retained-has endured the cracks and damagecaused by the patriarch of their troubled Sicilian family.