The New Sacher cinema in Rome, today, Monday 17 February, at 8 pm, will host the screening of Full of gracethe first documentary film by Andree Luciniwho will present the work together with the producers, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Manetti Bros and Désirée Manetti.
The work, a Mompracem production, created with the support of the Calabria Film Commission, was presented to the nineteenth edition of the Rome Film Festival.
Full of grace follows the path of three little girls, Mariateresa Leva, Giada Campitiello and Nicole Melara, in the running to become the new “Animella” and represent the Virgin Mary during the Varia di Palmi, one of the most spectacular and important Calabrian religious festivals, declared UNESCO Heritage. An opportunity to tell this ancient tradition, but also a world made of contrasts, through the faces and words of the citizens of Palmi and three girls overlooking adolescence.
Nicole, Giada and Mariateresa are eleven years old. In their country, Palmi, in Calabria, a single party in the world has been taking place for five hundred years: it varies. For this occasion, a girl is elected by citizens to get on a tall tall tank seventeen meters and represent the Madonna taken in heaven. Like many little girls of Palmi, the three protagonists dream of becoming the new animal, but the required canons are stringent: having long, straight and black hair, dark skin but not too much, being courageous and pretty. Through their eyes as girls who approach adolescence, we explore some of the issues that this popular competition puts at stake: the relationship with their appearance, the need to appear, the fear of not being enough. The voices of the citizens of Palmi tell their unconditional love for this event, but also all the contradictions he brings with him.
