Cinema is another form of art I deeply enjoy and find inspiration from. Lately, I’ve been watching the 1950’s movies of legendary Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, and I will talk about them in another post, but today I would like to write my thoughts on two recent movies that are both set in Italy. One is A Chiara by Italian-American director Jonas Carpignano, just released in the US. The other is Sole by Italian director Carlo Sironi, released in Italy in 2020. The first is the story of a close-knit family in Calabria, whose lives are upended when the father suddenly disappears and Chiara, the middle daughter, sets out to discover what happened to him.
The second is about Lena, a surrogate mother from Poland, and Ermanno, whom she marries in a scheme orchestrated by the young man’s uncle to give his wife the child they couldn’t have. Lena and Ermanno live under the same roof as two strangers until they start developing feelings for each other. The premature birth of the baby, Sole, further complicates things, as Lena has to care for her to ensure she is strong enough to transition to the new family.
They are both poignant stories, where the boundaries between right and wrong, good and bad, are blurred to make us reflect more profoundly on the choices people make to survive, or at least live on their own terms. The common thread is the lack of opportunities or financial resources that take the characters in a certain direction, and the bonds that remain despite the separations that inevitably follow.
A Chiara is of course also a movie about the deep roots of the mafia in certain places, where the choices are only two: either you leave or you live with it. But this is a movie that looks at that underworld through the humanity of its characters, while the institutions that are supposed to fight it are not necessarily portrayed with a benevolent eye.
Similar contradictions are present in Sole, where a respectable couple pays and cheats the system - with the help of insiders - to have a baby without going through a lengthy adoption process. And where two apparently insensitive and immature young people turn out to be mature enough to support each other and care for her baby during the ordeal.
Another aspect that the two movies have in common is the casting of non professional actors, including all chacarters in A Chiara and Ermanno in Sole. Considering how powerful their performances are, it looks like the directors made the right choice! In this interesting interview about his movie, Director Carlo Sirono explains the reason for this and other artistic decisions.