D01
Also known as Picciridda, Italian filmmaker Paolo Licata’s well-rendered coming-of-age-the-hard-way drama (based on a novel by Catena Fiorella, who helped adapt the screenplay) shows off both the geography of Sicily and the emotive skills of a number of Mediterranean actresses.
Young Marta Castiglia, making her debut, plays Lucia, an adolescent girl in a vague 1960s/70s time frame. She is tearfully left behind by her parents when her mother and father migrate to France for better job opportunities. Lucia instead has to start the school year living under the same roof as her stern grandmother Donna Maria (Lucia Sardo), AKA “the General,” a chilly widow who is prized by her community primarily for her skill in preparing the village dead for memorial ceremonies.
As the young heroine attends school and befriends a girl from the upper classes, the relationship between Lucia and Maria evolves as an ongoing clash of wills, from guarded mistrust to hostility to rare moments of respect and companionship—mostly shared with the grandmother‘s few close friends.
But there is a whole other set of relatives in town, ones who seem more warm and open to Lucia. Donna Maria bears a fierce grudge towards them, however, and tries to keep Lucia away from that side of the family, robbing the little girl of human contact that might give Lucia a happier surrogate household as she waits, anguished, for her absentee parents to finally send for her. Lucia gets clues of hidden secrets and longstanding lies, but when she finally learns the reason for the grandmother’s longstanding hatred, the lesson comes at wrenching personal cost.
With a cast of female thespians whose faces are Roman road maps of grief, loss, and resilience, and a spectacular coastal backdrop, the material ends up ultimately delivering a strong message of the devaluation and victimization of women (though Lucia is abandoned to the flinty Donna Maria, her small brother gets to accompany the parents on their grand adventure). Secondary message: listen to those bitter Sicilian grandmothers; they may well know something you don’t.
Collections should note that the material, though unrated, would most likely get an “R” for sexual themes, a sudden burst of violence, and brief female nudity (mostly out of focus). Recommended for foreign-language shelves. (Aud: P)