Happy as Lazzaro (2018 Italy)
Drama, Event, Genre, Mystery
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Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Starring: Alba Rohrwacher, David Bennent, Nicoletta Braschi
Genre: Drama, mystery
Duration: 130 mins
Beloved by audiences and critics at Cannes (where it was awarded the Best Screenplay prize), Alice Rohrwacher’s new film is a beguiling allegory of love, loss and compassion exploring the troubled soul of Italy. Its summer at Inviolata, an isolated rural estate, where an extended family of tobacco farmers toil under the rule of a domineering marchesa and where the handsome and hard-working Lazzaro, a young man imbued with a saint-like innocence, is alternately adored and taken advantage of. When the marchesa’s self-absorbed son, Tancredi first visits the fields, he senses an opportunity and embroils Lazzaro in an audacious plan to swindle his mother.
Channelling the spirit of Pasolini, Rohrwacher’s fascinating tale casts a wondrous spell, and confirms her status as one of the most inventive and compelling voices in contemporary Italian cinema.