CORPO CELESTE
Straight for Italy as part of our special showcase on emerging and established female filmmakers, CORPO CELESTE is an unusual and powerful coming-of-age tale. Merging the corporeal with the celestial, Alice Rohrwacher's accomplished debut feature is a cerebral exploration of faith and identity. Earning comparisons to the great humanist cineastes the Dardenne Brothers, Rohrwacher declares herself an exciting and promising filmmaker to watch. CORPO CELESTE is part of our ongoing showcase of contemporary female filmmakers.
"Quietly compelling, a cerebral slice of social realism is well worth hunting down."
-David Parkinson, EMPIRE MAGAZINE
"This first fiction feature from a 30-year-old Italian director feels densely observed, transparently personal and autobiographical... and accomplished debut."
-Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN
"CORPO CELESTE, the authentic-feeling debut feature of scribe-helmer Alice Rohrwacher... a Dardennes-esque look at a working-class teen's growing pains in a back water parish in southern Italy."
-Boyd van Hoeij, VARIETY
Having recently returned to her native Italy after living in Switzerland for 10 years, quiet but curious 13-year-old Marta is left to her own devices while her loving but worn-out mother toils away at an industrial bakery. Marta's only source of socialization is the local church, where she is told to attend preparatory classes for her confirmation. But the doctrines of Roman Catholicism offer little in terms of life lessons or consolation, and she quickly sees through the hypocrisy of the priest, who cares more about status than about his consituents. Eventually, Marta forges her very own way of the cross, which turns out to have much less to do with God than with her own climb towards adulthood.
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher. Unrated.
Italy, 2012, 35mm Film, 100minutes, Color, Italian with English Subtitles.