MY BRILLIANT FRIEND (L’AMICA GENIALE) World Cinema

MY BRILLIANT FRIEND adapts the first book in Elena Ferrante’s renowned coming-of-age saga, with the fidelity and attention to detail to satisfy even its most obsessive readers. Written and directed by Italian filmmaker Saverio Costanzo (2014’s HUNGRY HEARTS), it is the first non-English series to premiere on HBO, adapting even the Neapolitan dialect. The series begins as an unexpected phone call compels Elena to reflect on her friendship with the remarkable and enigmatic Lila — beginning in 1950s Naples and spanning six decades — who refused to allow her intelligence to be crushed by poverty, prescribed gender roles and economic class. This nostalgic contemplation of a friendship lost to circumstance insightfully explores the complexities of female friendship in communities replete with male violence. – Malin Kan