Agree completely with the comment of David from Seattle (the only other comment on the film so far). Just saw it on Italian TV and was blown away--a remarkable work of the humanist cinema (insofar as such a term exists anymore). I had read some festival reviews of the film that basically criticized it because it didn't have the wide scope of the "Best of Youth", but that's hardly grounds to penalize a film that does so many things through its central story.
The basic plot sounds like it could be tedious--a boy from a wealthy industrialist family who is thought drowned is saved by a refugee boat. He becomes especially close to a Romanian brother and sister and in many ways ties his own fate to theirs. The film is so beautifully directed--subtle, never obvious, not belabored or sentimental--that it feels as much like it is observed so much as created for the screen.
No recent film can top "The Best of Youth", but this is also great. I hope more people outside Italy get a chance to see it. Giordana is the best Italian director at work now.
17 out of 20 found this helpful