The Wonders (15)
Soda Pictures, £17.99
This slow and masterful second feature by 34-year-old Italian director Alice Rohrwacher is part autobiography – like her heroine, 12-year-old Gelsomina, Rohrwacher's German father worked as a beekeeper – and part fable about the bonds between people, land and the natural world.
Rohrwacher's sister, Alba, plays Gelsomina's mother but while the director looks hard at family ties, in particular the father-daughter relationship, she places it in an enigmatic and occassionally dreamlike narrative. Is the family's dilapidated farmhouse a former commune? How exactly is everyone connected? We aren't told. Even the era isn't clear: it could be the mid-1990s, but not knowing merely adds to the sense of timelessness. Rohrwacher established herself as a Cannes favourite when her 2011 debut screened in the Director's Fortnight, and The Wonders scooped the Grand Prix at last year's festival. A very special film from a surefooted new talent – and with a delightful cameo from Monica Bellucci.
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