The lush, breathtaking beauty of the Alps, captured with painterly grace in natural light from frigid winter to redemptive spring, provides the physical and emotional backdrop for Maura Delpero’s visionary film “Vermiglio,” which won the Silver Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival
This singular portrait of a sprawling family, set in the small mountain village of Vermiglio during the final days of World War II, follows a series of dramatic and consequential events after the arrival of a taciturn Sicilian soldier (Giuseppe De Domenico), who is hiding in town after deserting the army
While there, the soldier develops a romance with the family’s eldest daughter, Lucia (Martina Scrinzi)
“Vermiglio” shows the life of a provincial family in a remote village suspended in time by the customs of a bygone era
By evoking stories from his own family’s past, Delpero creates a deeply personal and human tale that recalls the great neorealist movement in Italian cinema, but through Lucia’s perspective, “Vermiglio” feels distinct and new
47/41
