03 November 2021
Italy/Switzerland/Germany
2014
Director: Alice Rohrwachers
Outstanding performances from the ensemble cast bring warmth and insight to this film about an alternative-lifestyle family eking out a breadline existence as beekeepers in the Tuscan wilds. When a television crew arrives to film the “Countryside Wonders” competition, twelve-year-old Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu) is transfixed by the spectacle of Monica Bellucci’s rural goddess and resolves to get her own family on the show. Sam Louwyck’s gruff patriarch, Wolfgang, is opposed to any such selling out despite the family’s urgent need for money. Natural light captured on 16mm film adds an earthy texture to this rural drama.
Cannes Film Festival 2017 – Winner Grand Prix 