Corpo Celeste (2011)

Directed by: Alice Rohrwacher
Country: Italy / Switzerland / France

Review: “Corpo Celeste” is contemplative and observant in its attempt to conjugate coming-of-age issues with religious deception. Marta is a 13 year-old girl who moved to a small village in Italy with her mother and older sister, after spending her childhood in Switzerland. Undergoing tough transformations, and feeling misplaced, Marta only socializes in catechism, where she is preparing for the Confirmation rite. Unfamiliar with religious matters, she becomes curious about the meaning of prayers, as well as attentive to the behaviors from those who were connected to Church. Her vision about the religious community will quickly become blurred. Many happenings contributed to increase her perplexity and frustration: the ambition showed by the village priest, the catechist's fanaticism, a brief conversation with an embittered man of God, and the witnessing of brutal animal killings. The final moments express a search for something alive and pure, a return to innocence, refusing the ungenerous ideas and rotten procedures that were associated with the Catholic Church. The restrained tension worked strikingly well, whereas minor flaws didn’t have significant expression in the final result. Rohrwacher and Yle Vianello, are to be congratulated in their debut direction and acting, respectively.