A Chiara (2021)

Directed by: Jonas Carpignano | 121 minutes | drama | Actors: Swamy Rotolo, Grecia Rotolo, Claudio Rotolo, Carmela Fumo, Antonio Rotolo Uno, Salvatore Rotolo, Giorgia Rotolo, Giuseppina Palumbo, Silvana Palumbo, Concetta Grillo, Rosa Caccamo, Vincenzo Rotolo, Carmelo Rotolo, Antonina Fumo, Giacinto Fumo

‘A Chiara’ is set in the mafia region of Calabria, the tip of the Italian boot – a region of run-down seaside resorts and volcanic activity. ‘A Chiara’ is a dark docudrama about the love between daughters and fathers; love is letting go, especially when father suddenly dies in an ‘accident’. You read it already, the accident is in quotes, and the worst gets worse if you don’t know what happened.

Pooh, and we’re just getting started. By the way, Chiara is a teenager in a film by Jonas Carpignano, who we can know from the impressive immigrant drama ‘A Ciambra’. This Chiara (Rotolo) is 18, and is placed in a foster family after the sudden event, in misunderstanding; mother is more sedated and resigned than sad, a fact that is more relevant with the unexpected death or disappearance, but not with the unsuspecting, protesting adolescent.

Chiara is not told the cause of the fatal event, even though she has seen her father’s car burn out. Don’t teenagers in southern Italy know that the mafia is close and therefore death? Sure, but the eighteenth birthday is full of hope and celebration, because youth simply hopes and celebrates. Father will still experience that birthday; he wears heart-shaped glasses while dancing with his daughter. It’s clownish and endearing.

The plot entanglements as described have been revealed, and the film is on its way. As if events don’t matter. The crumbling of a family does matter, of course, and that’s what Carpignano wants to show us. Violence makes powerless, and just like fighting a terminal illness, fighting here is not enough. In fact, the demise of a family is a soap slate that can only be taken in stoic acceptance.