Fortunately, Italian cinema still brings us beautiful, contemporary Neorealist films. This lively fiction feature debut from documentary director Marcello Sannino convinces and moves with a sketch of everyday life and survival in Portici, the old, multicultural part of Naples where Sannino himself grew up. With a superb eye for local details and a great cast, he tells a nuanced, unsentimental, empathetic tale.
His protagonist is 30-year-old Carmela (the title of the film refers to a line from a song with the same title: ‘You rose, rock, star’), who scrapes together a living doing a range of odd jobs. Her situation becomes more complicated when a deal to provide visas to illegal migrants through a lawyer goes badly wrong, leading to her being evicted from her home along with her mother and her eleven-year-old daughter Maria.
Film details
- Country of production
- Italy
- Year
- 2020
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2020
- Length
- 90'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
