VERMIGLIO World Cinema

Director Maura Delpero examines the intersection of midcentury gender politics, imposed tradition and religion in this year’s Silver Lion Grand Jury Winner from the Venice Film Festival. It is 1944 in the remote alpine village of Vermiglio, Italy. Removed from the immediacy of World War II, a big family lives under a strict patriarch, Cesare (played by a hard-headed Tommaso Ragno), who serves as the highly respected local schoolteacher. His wife, Adele (Roberta Rovelli), tends to their dairy cow and their handful of offspring, including obedient Ada who has her little secrets; intelligent, booksmart Flavia; and the oldest, reserved Lucia who longs for a different future. Under the guise of structure in church, school and chores, their ordinary routines seem idyllic, that is, until the arrival of a young army deserter threatens to change the trajectory of everyone’s lives. Against the backdrop of the ravishingly austere mountain vistas beautifully realized by cinematographer Mikhail Krichman (THE RETURN, LOVELESS), family secrets and devastating lies are unearthed in this evocative melodrama. –Anna Li