Dirs: Alessandro Cassigoli, Casey Kauffman | Cast: Marilena Amato, Gennaro Scarica, Vincenzo Scarica, Anna Amato, Nina Lorenza Ciano Italy | 89′
To working class Naples, and the typically southern port town of Torre Annunciata in the distant shadow of Mount Vesuvius, where Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman’s drama centres on real events and a follow-up up to their 2021 drama Californie. This time they’re backed by Nanni Moretti as producer.
Vittoria assembles a cast of newcomers aka ‘non-actors’ giving this slice of dreamy realism an off-the-cuff feel in depicting the story of a gutsy woman desperate to extend her family with a much-wanted girl.
Hairdresser Jasmine (Marilena Amato), a fiercely independent woman not to be messed with, has a classic ‘heart of gold’, and consults a fortune-teller. The rest is history, as they say.
Married to Rino, (Gennaro Scarica) a strong silent type who works tirelessly as a jobbing carpenter, the two have a son Vincenzo (Vincenzo Scarica) who is helping his mother in her salon, and two younger boys in a household where mum clearly holds sway. But the desire for a daughter in the family haunts her dreams (along with her dead father). It’s what motivates and bugs Jasmine so much she’s prompted to act on it.
The cast’s strong Neapolitan dialect and a heady score add authenticity and emotional weight to what is a moving piece of filmmaking with a touch of lyricism and possibly the duo’s most appealing to date. @MeredithTaylor
VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2024 | HORIZONS EXTRA