Sicilian Ghost Story, 2017.
Directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza.
Starring Julia Jedlikowska, Gaetano Fernandez, Corinne Musallari, Federico Finocchirao, and Andrea Falzone.
SYNOPSIS:
Against a heavy cloak of secrecy, a 12-year-old girl smitten with her handsome classmate ventures deeper and deeper into the enchanted Sicilian forests to find him, unaware of just how thick is the mystery behind his strange disappearance.
Taking its inspiration from true events, the 1993 kidnapping of Mafia supergrass Santino Di Matteo’s son, the writing-directing team of Grassadonia and Piazza attempt to do a Del Toro lite, by telling a macabre love story that’s flecked with just the slightest hint of the supernatural.
It’s fair to say that audiences will be divided into two factions by Sicilian Ghost Story, each having valid arguments over their takeaway from this metaphysical mystery. They’ll be those who go with the slow-burn descent into gothic fairy-tale territory, haunted by the beautiful cinematography and images worthy of a gallery, enjoying the unsure footing generated by the fact you never quite know where this waking dream is taking you.
It’s for that same reason that some might become frustrated by the very deliberate, meandering way in which the film sleepwalks through events. It admirably dances around convention, whether that’s genre or narrative, which to some will interpret as ambition, whereas others might conclude that it never quite knows what it wants to be. Ultimately it lands somewhere in the middle, which is quite fitting for a film that operates in that realm between fantasy and reality.
Ensuring that intrigue is maintained throughout Sicilian Ghost Story‘s languid pace are the two young actors at the literal heart of the story, who’re so phenomenally good. Julia Jedlikowska combines the headstrong determination intrinsic with being a teenage girl, and the very human heartache of playing detective for her first love. It adds weight to a set of already tragic circumstances. Like Gaetano Fernandez, as the kidnapped boy, most of her work is understated and quiet, which perfectly compliments the film’s mood.
As a study of the brutality of the adult world filtered through the coping mechanism of a child’s imagination, Sicilian Ghost Story suffers in comparison to the Guillermo Del Toro oeuvre, or even the underrated 2005 gem Mirrormask, but should you be willing to submit to it, this still remains a wonderfully shot little oddity.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★
Matt Rodgers – Follow me on Twitter @mainstreammatt
