MOON SHADOW

Italian weepie about a scientist who becomes involved in a therapeutic community.Running time: 82 minutes. Not rated (nudity). In Italian, with English subtitles. At Cinema Village, 12th Street, between Fifth Avenue and University Place.

THE de-institutionalization of mental patients is the theme of “Moon Shadow,” a very sentimental 1995 Italian film making its belated American bow at Cinema Village.

Tcheky Kayro, the Turkish-born actor who played the French officer in “The Patriot,” stars as Lorenzo, an emotionally distant Milanese mathematician who inherits a crumbling villa in Sicily.

He wants to unload the property quickly as it carries unhappy childhood memories, but it isn’t that simple. He hires a crew to fix up the place, led by Salvatore, a crusty old handyman played by the great Italian actor Nino Manfredi (“Bread and Chocolate”).

It turns out that Salvatore’s workers, including his son, are part of a community of mentally ill people led by a doctor whose unconventional therapy eschews drugs and confinement.

This first film written and directed by Alberto Simone, who has a background in advertising and psychology, contains some fine performances – particularly Isabelle Pasco as Luisa, a member of the community whose affections Lorenzo ethically can’t reciprocate.

But its four-hankie climax goes way over the top.