Set in a remote Italian village in 1944, Maura Delpero’s film Vermiglio tells the story of one family’s struggles in a world at the mercy of forces outside their control. Delpero, who drew from her own family history, directs us into the insular community of Vermiglio, located high in the Italian Alps.
It’s a place that’s been left decades behind the modern world due to its isolation. With able-bodied men away fighting in World War II, the village is populated solely by women, children, and elderly men.
At the center of the film is the Graziadei family, led by Cesare, the local schoolteacher respected by villagers. He lives with his wife Adele and their three daughters—the spirited Lucia, intellectual Flavia, and soul-searching Ada. They also have four sons. With the family feeling the deprivations of war, their tight-knit community becomes all the more important for support.
The story focuses on how global events, like the war, impact the family’s everyday lives in profound yet subtle ways. Delpero brings us deeply into their world through naturalistic performances and sweeping landscapes that show the village changing with the seasons. Winner of awards like the Grand Jury Prize at Venice, Vermiglio offers a thoughtful, textured glimpse into finding purpose and connection during turbulent times—affirming the human capacity to endure when relying on loved ones in a place called home.
Lives in Wartime
The small village of Vermiglio is nestled high in Italy’s mountains. It’s the year 1944, but the town feels removed from modern times, cut off by the rugged peaks. Most able men are off fighting in a distant war, their fates unknown. Among those left behind is Cesare, the local schoolteacher and patriarch of a big family.
Cesare’s devoted wife Adele keeps their household running as her pregnancy follows pregnancy. Eldest daughter Lucia helps however she can, whether milking the cow by dawn or caring for her younger siblings. Curious Flavia soaks up her father’s lessons, while soul-searching Ada searches for purpose. Their tight community surrounds them.
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One day, a stranger arrives—Pietro, a Sicilian soldier who stayed behind to save a villager’s life. Though some see a deserter, others like Cesare understand wartime’s complexities. Lucia finds herself drawn to Pietro, and a romance buds between them. When she learned she’s expecting, they wed despite the gossip.
As the long war continues, hardship weighs on the family. Cesare’s passion, music, causes tensions when funds grow tight. A tragic loss cuts deep. And when Pietro leaves to reunite with his own family, pregnant Lucia faces an uncertain future. A subplot follows Cesare’s decision on one child’s education.
Through it all, the family’s bond endures like the omnipresent mountains. But will new possibilities emerge once peace returns? And how will each member find purpose in a changing world, from the spirited Lucia to the introspective Ada and beyond? Their stories are just beginning.
Crafting Stories from the Mountains
Maura Delpero demonstrates deft skills behind the camera. In Vermiglio, she brings a restrained touch, perfecting realism. Rather than flashy techniques, her direction emphasizes natural performances that feel deeply lived-in.
This intimacy stems from Delpero drawing from her own family’s history in Italy’s Dolomites. The film vividly depicts how those rugged peaks shaped identities and cut off communities for centuries. Through her characters, we experience what life was like in such seclusion.
Masterful cinematographer Mikhail Krichman captures the mountains’ grand scale without diminishing the people within them. His sweeping shots portray how the alpine scenery changed constantly with the weather yet remained omnipresent. Krichman seems to find magic in even the harshest winter lighting, illuminating secrets behind closed shutters.
Delpero incorporates Krichman’s landscape imagery into her deliberate pacing. Lengthy scenes allow viewers to observe the village as seasons shift almost imperceptibly. Through these minor transformations, we feel the passage of time along with inhabitants. Slower shots also emphasize the area’s deep isolation from a world at war, leaving residents largely untouched by conflicts but still impacted.
Delpero crafts an intimate story from her roots in this land. With subtlety and care for authentic details, she weaves intergenerational stories that feel timeless yet profoundly tied to their setting within the enduring mountains.
Crafting a World from Memory
Maura Delpero brings her memories of rural Italy to life through the minutiae of production. Vermiglio feels strikingly authentic, from its alpine hamlet down to individual threads worn by farming folk.
Set decorator Alessandro Amato fills the screen with period-perfect homes—interiors cluttered with use, from cabinets holding generations’ clutter to hard surfaces polished by constant handling. Within these tough-built structures, dwellings remain cozy through signs of life and family-like instruments squeezed into corners.
Costume designer Camilla Carè slots the ensemble into their roles. Weather-worn fabrics drape comfortably over bodies shaped through physical labor. Colors are softened yet warm, conveying shared history through hand-me-downs.
Cinematographer Mikhail Krichman shrewdly employs available lighting. Whether shafts cutting through barn planks or flickers dancing across work-roughened skin, his eye for sourceful glow brings narrative warmth.
Most affecting are the non-pro actors, recruited locally. Their dialects ring authentic, generations of nuance preserved in sounds fading from wider usage. Faces carry memories too, everyday gestures stirring long-quiet emotions.
Through assembling period pieces with care, Delpero transports us back without artifice. Vermiglio upholds reality’s complexity, granting memory a stage as vivid as those who experience its weight firsthand.
Of Mountains, Memory and Modernity
The tight-knit community of Vermiglio faces changes on the horizon as war draws to a close. Throughout their insular village, cracks emerge in long-held traditions as new possibilities dawn.
For the Graziadei family at the film’s center, expectations weigh heavy regarding gender, class, and generation. As the patriarchal Cesare leads through example, his three daughters sense restrictions of their prescribed roles. Eldest Lucia acts on newfound desires, while souls like Ada and Flavia seek meanings beyond what the mountains have long afforded.
Isolation defined the townspeople yet sustained deep bonds between all. With many men gone and the outside world intruding, Vermiglio’s future cohesion is uncertain. Younger figures experience what lies beyond their secluded valleys through Pietro and Flavia’s respective departures. How might their gains shape those staying behind?
Tensions arise from the balance between honoring history and accommodating change. Cesare clings proudly to cultural touchstones like music despite hardship. His passion kindles in students an appreciation of artistic joys that uplift the spirit. But traditions also risk trapping later generations in the past.
Nature has always provided for villagers yet retained an untamed power over their lives. Through subtle transformations within characters and the seasons’ turning, the film ponders humanity’s relationship with the impervious mountains that birthed these resilient souls yet confined their horizons.
Across one transformative year, Vermiglio thoughtfully explores how memories sustain community, and at the same time, new dreams must take root if its inhabitants are to find meaning in a changing world no longer defined by geographies of the past.
Earning Acclaim for Authentic Insights
Maura Delpero’s nuanced tale of lives unfolding within rugged mountains has garnered well-deserved recognition. Vermiglio took home the top prize at the Venice International Film Festival upon its premiere.
Critics applaud how Delpero transports viewers to a lost world through details as minute as stitches in Sunday dresses or snowflakes’ fleeting dance across rough-cut bark. Her unpolished yet astute direction of non-professional locals brings an unvarnished sincerity.
By crafting intertwining seasons-long narratives through minute interactions rather than tidy plot beats, comparisons arise to meditative European arthouse akin to early masters like Olmi or Taviani. Like their works, Vermiglio prioritizes humanity over happenings, imparting quiet wisdom.
Critics agree arthouse circuits will prove a natural home. Those embracing character studies presented with flecked simplicity over flickering shots will find its rural routines and familial tenderness most resonant. Warmth emanates from truths recognized across cultures in tales uniting communities weathering change.
Invited to premieres from Venice to Toronto, Vermiglio is gaining recognition from cinephiles appreciating Delpero’s intimate yet imaginative creative lens guiding viewers on journeys of lived experiences.
Of Families, mountains, and Memories Preserved
In recounting one Alpine family’s story against momentous historical times, Vermiglio beautifully weaves personal and political into a thoughtful, textured tapestry. Delpero masterfully brings wartime Italy’s rugged inland valleys to life through her characters and the generations of memories they preserve.
Across one transformative year within Vermiglio’s close-knit yet changing community, the film meaningfully engages with themes of transition—between traditions and dreams, isolation and connection, past and future. Performances feel deeply authentic.
Crafted with astounding atmosphere and a keen eye for authentic detail, Delpero’s exploration of resilience through hardship resonates. Her directorial debut insightfully illuminates humanity’s relationships with history, place, and one another.
Cinematic in capturing the majesty of wilderness yet intimate in its domestic worlds, Vermiglio invites reflection on stories that sustain communities. Arthouse patrons will find its understated charms linger long in their own family histories and memories. Delpero’s virtues promise more rewards to come.
The Review
Vermiglio
With empathy and subtle grace, Vermiglio weaves an impactful yet understated tapestry of human endurance in a world in transition. Delpero honors intergenerational links between people and place through authentic glimpses into lives navigating change amid hardship and hope. Her directorial debut proves a thought-provoking and poignant snapshot of rural fortitude well worth viewers' time.
PROS
- Authentic, lived-in performances and production design
- Evocative, sweeping landscape cinematography
- Thoughtful examination of themes like community, gender roles, and traditions vs. modernity
- Intimate yet impactful family portraits against a complex historical backdrop
- Understated yet poignant storytelling style that lingers in the mind
CONS
- Somewhat muted emotional range and subtlety of character arcs
- Occasional lack of tension/drama despite multi-stranded plotlines
- Introspective pace won't appeal to all audiences looking for action.
- Ambiguous resolutions and motivations leave questions open to interpretation.
