The Pupils [Fiction]
Alice Rohrwacher
Italy, United States | 2022 | 37 min
Language : Italian
It’s Christmas Eve at a wartime boarding school and food is scarce. A merry band of orphaned girls, up for anything to entertain themselves, must evade the inflexible morality of the mother superior. “Clumsily and freely” inspired by a letter from Elsa Morante to her friend Goffredo Fofi, Le pupille is a tale of pranks and mischievous young minds.
It is Christmas Eve in a catholic boarding school during the Second World War and food is scarce. A merry band of orphaned girls – who would do anything for some entertainment – live under the inflexible moral yoke of the Mother Superior Fioralba (Alba Rohrwacher), for whom any moment of fun or little slip becomes a pretext for expiating one’s sins. But on Christmas Day, temptation comes to the orphanage in the form of an enormous cake brought by a rich woman (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) in exchange for their prayers for her husband, who is fighting on the front. This blessing is the starting point for happy anarchy led by Serafina, a young rebel with an angelic face.
“Clumsily and freely” inspired by a letter from Elsa Morante to her friend Goffredo Fofi, Le pupille (presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022) once again demonstrates Alice Rohrwacher’s talent as a storyteller and enchanter, whose magical eye finds beauty and innocence in the dark hours of an orphanage, composing a Christmas fable full of pranks and mischievous young minds. This film, which seems almost untouched by time, was nominated for the 2023 Oscars and co-produced by Mexican master Alfonso Cuarón.
Aurélien Marsais
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