Jonas Carpignano
A Chiara

Jonas Carpignano… Who is he? Sounds like the name of an imaginary character from Gialappa’s… but he's actually a good director! But what the heck, they say Italian cinema is dead, that only Sorrentino makes a splash, the rest are just zalonate at best and cheesy Moccia-like flicks with silly dialogues blablabla… is that all?

A Chiara: who even knew them? Has anyone seen or heard of it? How many theaters was it released in? What were the earnings? Ah, but the Cortellesi… the Cortellesi's film can't even compare to this!

It's recent, it's from 2021… it even had a troubled production due to covid… yet at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival it received a positive reception, and Swamy Rotolo, then 15 years old, won the David di Donatello for Best Actress!

Strongly characterized by a realistic framework, with an almost documentary-like approach, A Chiara tells the story of this young girl who discovers her father is a criminal, and for her, it's a bomb that detonates in her life and spirit.

The film is set in Gioia Tauro, the town where Chiara (meaning Swamy) was actually born and lived. Now, she's in Rome, 19 years old, and studies acting. The family in the film—the dad, mom, the older sister of 18 (now obviously she's 22), and the little one, a 6-year-old girl (now she's… well, never mind)—are really her family! It was obvious they weren't professional actors, except for the 'ndrangheta father (who in real life, however, has an honest job), he did well.

The patriarchy that's so fashionable now, well, in Gioia Tauro it truly exists (not like the Cortellesi's dances that preach about an Italy of 80 years ago) and it's in this context that Chiara's fury explodes, the only one in the family to rebel, against the very concept of family and that mafia set of rules which has only one rule: silence, t’hai a stà scitt! But Chiara won't stay silent!

Extraordinary film, as I was saying, the initial party for the older sister's 18th birthday is chilling, Carpignano had the brilliant idea of letting the actors, who aren't actors, it's his family, the cousin really is the cousin, the friends too, do the party, he says, and they do it, do the karaoke, do the dance competition, they only had a basic outline. Also of absolute prominence is the following sequence of Chiara and her friends on the seaside wall with their phones (it reminded me of Amore Tossico in how real it was) … their selfies, their 15-year-old selves in that hellhole of a town in the middle of nowhere in Italy with houses that aren't even plastered.

Without giving spoilers, it's obvious there will be a turning point, Chiara will have to make choices or maybe won't be able to, who knows? How will it end, what will become of her? It's easy to rebel and cut ties, but that's her family, her land, her roots, Chiara is only 15!

Try to see it.