I hate to be the fly in the ointment here, as the four other reviews here (at the time I write this) give a glowing description of this short film, heaping it with resounding praise. With a run time of about thirty seven minutes, I thought it rambled somewhat aimlessly without a clear focus for an eventual outcome. I do think the somewhat rebellious Serafina (Melissa Falasconi) was a cute foil for the domineering Mother Superior (Alba Rohrwacher), but I thought the story reached its high point when 'bad girl' Serafina defied Sister Fioralba's entreaty to sacrifice her slice of cake for a noble Catholic cause. When Serafina dug into her cake, it felt like the Mother Superior outwitted herself by claiming Serafina to be a bad girl earlier for repeating the words of a song the nun didn't approve of. Serafina rightly tried to explain that she only remembered the words, but didn't dance to the tune like the other orphan girls did when they heard it on the radio. Because she was 'bad' by the nun's definition, Serafina thought she was entitled to her share of cake that the 'good' girls gave up, and rightly so I thought, given the strict admonition of the nuns. Right after that, a chimney sweep showed up requesting payment for work done around the orphanage. The Mother Superior seriously shortchanged the man, giving him only five lire when he requested thirty five. When she tried to make up the difference with the remainder of the cake, he gladly carried it off, but fell face first into it as he trudged off to meet his co-workers. I didn't really see how that connected to the rest of the story, other than to fulfill the meaning expressed in my summary line above. But even then, it didn't seem a righteous fate for the poor worker to have been cheated out of his pay.
This Italian film is a contender for a 2023 Oscar in the category of Best Live Action Short Films. I was lucky enough to catch this short along with the four other contenders for this year's Academy Award at the Paramount Theater in Middletown, New York. If not for this limited showing, I don't know how else I would have been able to see it. So, Congratulations to the Paramount for making it available to enthusiastic cinema fans like me.
This Italian film is a contender for a 2023 Oscar in the category of Best Live Action Short Films. I was lucky enough to catch this short along with the four other contenders for this year's Academy Award at the Paramount Theater in Middletown, New York. If not for this limited showing, I don't know how else I would have been able to see it. So, Congratulations to the Paramount for making it available to enthusiastic cinema fans like me.