italian films – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

MOVIE OF THE WEEK July 17, 2026: THE KIDNAPPING OF ARABELLA

July 12, 2026July 12, 2026 Jennifer Merin 0 Comments Benedetta Porcaroli, betsy bozdech, Carolina Cavalli, Chris Pine, italian films, jennifer merin, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, Lucrezia Guglielmino, monique jones, motw, nell minow, sandie angulo chen, The Kidnapping of Arabella

Quirky and poignant, Italian writer/director Carolina Cavalli’s The Kidnapping of Arabella tells the story of a young woman named Holly, whose grief and childhood pain conspire to leave her believing that the space-time continuum has somehow brought her face to face with a younger version of herself. As she figures out what to do with that unlikely opportunity, she must ultimately face the reality she’d rather ignore. As the movie begins, Holly, who studies physics and is mourning the loss of her mother, is begrudgingly working at an ice rink, where she opts to blame small holes in the fabric of the universe for unusual moments like randomly finding a tooth on the ice. When, after scamming/bullying a fast-food worker into giving her a free order of fries, Holly encounters a feisty 8-year-old girl in the parking lot, she becomes convinced that the child is, in fact, her younger self, brought to her to give her a second chance at making better life choices. So when the girl offers to pay Holly for a ride to “anywhere but here,” they drive off together.

Reviews

THE KIDNAPPING OF ARABELLA – Review by Cate Marquis

July 7, 2026July 12, 2026 Cate Marquis Benedetta Porcaroli, Carolina Cavalli, Chris Pine, italian films, Lucrezia Guglielmino, The Kidnapping of Arabella

Italian writer/director Carolina Cavalli’s The Kidnapping of Arabella is a delightful, creative film that could be called an absurdist comedy but it is more complicated than that. It is an intriguing, marvelously-acted mix of magical realism and psychological drama wrapped up in an absurdist buddy road trip. It all starts with Arabella, a precocious 8-year-old who is a holy terror to her father, a successful but mournful novelist Orest,, and a chance meeting with a sad, deluded (but very smart) young woman named Holly outside a fast food joint called Taco King. What happens isn’t really a kidnapping, more an escape engineered by clever Arabella, an “assisted” running away in which Arabella essentially tricks mentally-fragile Holly into taking her along, by playing along with a delusion that the little girl is a younger version of Holly herself, magically transported back from the past. This fantastical idea launches the pair on a great adventure across northeastern Italy.

Festivals Reviews

NUNS VS THE VATICAN (TIFF 2025) – Review by Leslie Combemale

September 10, 2025September 10, 2025 Leslie Combemale culture of secrecy, documentary, Gloria Branciani, italian films, Lorena Luciano, Marco Rupnik, Nuns vs the Vatican, sexual abuse, TIFF 2025

Nuns vs the Vatican chronicles the shockingly widespread abuse of nuns by members of the clergy. In writer/director/editor Lorena Luciano’s documentary, several women’s experiences exemplify the much more widespread epidemic of priests victimizing nuns. These men assault the women below them in the church hierarchy, abusing an already skewed power balance with little or no repercussions. It is believed, at MINIMUM, 40% of nuns have had some form of sexual trauma perpetrated against them by clergy members. The real number is likely much higher, as these victims so rarely report what has happened to them.

Reviews

DICIANNOVE – Review by Diane Carson

August 26, 2025August 25, 2025 Diane Carson Diciannove, Giovanni Tortorici, italian films, luca guadagnino, Manfredi Marini, Massimiliano Kuveiller, Oscilloscope

Largely autobiographical and painfully honest, writer/director Giovanni Tortorici’s feature debut Diciannove rambles through 19-year-old Leonardo’s search for meaning, connection, and motivation. At times feeling almost as lost as its subject, to its credit the film does reject the conventional self-discovery scenarios so familiar in Hollywood’s dramatizations of teenagers’ introspection. Those egocentric interrogations usually lead to reassuring maturity after hard-won insights. Not for Leo.

Reviews

THERE’S STILL TOMORROW – Review by Leslie Combemale

February 24, 2025March 1, 2025 Leslie Combemale italian films, Paola Cortellesi, There’s Still Tomorrow

Oh, There’s Still Tomorrow, where have you been all my life? As much as I cover female-helmed and fronted films, I can’t believe I’m only just hearing about this gem. Though it won six Italian Academy Awards, it’s only just releasing in the US on March 7th. Beautifully filmed in black and white, it captures the feel of the Italian neorealism of the 40s and 50s. The script is tight and believable, and credit is due, in part, to director Paola Cortellesi, who, impressively, is not only the co-screenwriter, but also stars as lead character, Delia.

Reviews

VERMIGLIO – Review by Lynn Venhaus

December 12, 2024December 15, 2024 Lynn Venhaus Guiseppe De Domenico, italian films, Martina Scrinzi., Maura Delpero, Oscar International Film, Santiage Fondeviila Sancet, Vermiglio

A sweeping family saga that unfolds at an unhurried pace, writer-director Maura Delpero’s narrative is an intimate look at how a remote mountain village is affected by World War II. The time is 1944, and Vermiglio is nestled in the Italian Alps. Because of its location, the villagers know a war is going on, and some of the sons are in military service, but so far, what’s happening globally has not intruded on their relatively safe haven. That is, until one family’s son, Attilio , injured and shell-shocked, brings home the soldier who saved his life. Pietro is a deserter, from Sicily, and falls in love with Attilio’s sister Lucia. A series of melodramatic events will change the course of nearly everyone’s life, and the family’s struggles reverberate through this isolated territory, especially as it relates to confining traditional, provincial roles.

Interviews

Maura Delpero talks VERMIGLIO, Community, Family, and Sisterhood

December 12, 2024December 14, 2024 Nadine Whitney Anna Thaler, Carlotta Gamba, Giuseppe De Domenico, italian films, Martina Scrinzi., Maura Delpero, Rachele Potrich, Roberta Rovelli, Tommaso Ragno, Vermiglio

Maura Delpero’s Award-nominated film Vermiglio is inspired by the history of her family in a remote mountain village in Northern Italy. Yet, it has a sense of communal understanding which is reaching audiences all over the world. Set over the period of a year at the end of World War II, the film tells the story of the extended Grazaidei family and the series of events which unfold when a Sicilian army deserter, Pietro, falls in love with Lucia the eldest daughter of the local schoolteacher Cesare. Vermiglio is written and directed by Maura Delpero and stars Tommaso Ragno, Giuseppe De Domenico, Roberta Rovelli, Carlotta Gamba, Rachele Potrich, Anna Thaler, and Martina Scrinzi. Delpero recently chatted with AWFJ’s Nadine Whitney about the universal importance of family and community in the film.

Reviews

THERE IS STILL TOMORROW – Review by Nadine Whitney

September 30, 2024October 3, 2024 Nadine Whitney italian films, Paola Cortellesi, Romana Maggiora Vergano, There’s Still Tomorrow, Valerio Mastandrea

Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow is a wonderful film, combining the bleak reality for women in Italy suffering under extreme misogyny and violence with a spirit of shared rebellion. The final rug pull Cortellesi performs upends where you thought the film was going and turns it into a firmly political film about the struggle of women to have a voice and make choices. Mordantly funny, exquisitely performed, and chilling in its depiction of abuse and violence; There’s Still Tomorrow is forever relevant.

Reviews

L’IMMENSITA – Review by Jennifer Green

May 7, 2023May 7, 2023 Jennifer Green Emanuele Crialese, italian films, L’Immensità, Luana Giuliani, penelope cruz, Penélope Nieto Conti, Vincenzo Amato

Emanuele Crialese’s L’Immensità (which translates as The Immensity) memorably captures the look and feel of 1970s Roma with this family drama, which stars a magnificent Penélope Cruz in the role of a loving mother but suffering wife who eventually collapses in a mental breakdown. Her slow decline is witnessed by the vigilant eyes of her pre-teen daughter, Adri (Luana Giuliani), who goes by ‘Andrew’ and feels she (he, from here on out) was born in the wrong body, a reality unacceptable in that time and place.

Reviews

IL BUCO – Review by Diane Carson

July 19, 2022July 21, 2022 Diane Carson Bifurto Abyss, documentary, Il Buco, italian films, Michelangelo Frammartino

Young speleologists in Turin organize their October 1961 campaign to map the Bifurto Abyss in Italy’s Calabrian region. Europe’s deepest cave, the third largest on Earth, reaching seven hundred meters in depth, the Bifurto Abyss appears like a yawning cavern in the unnamed shepherd’s neighborhood. Cross cutting between Abyss’ nearby, isolated village and the cave explorers’ tent camp, Il Buco, meaning The Hole, casts its spell with few words, the sounds of nature defining the vividly vibrantly environment. This meditative, deeply moving film is pure poetry.

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