To Chiara

To Chiara image - a film by Jonas Carpignano
To Chiara image - a film by Jonas Carpignano
To Chiara image - a film by Jonas Carpignano
To Chiara image - a film by Jonas Carpignano
To Chiara image - a film by Jonas Carpignano
To Chiara image - a film by Jonas Carpignano
To Chiara image - a film by Jonas Carpignano
NOW AVAILABLE TO OWN OR VIEW ON DEMAND
To Chiara poster - a film by Jonas Carpignano
Poignant and persuasive. Put together with an ingenuity that deftly avoids every looming cliche. Carpignano doesn’t romanticise the mafia’s corruption or its violence, but he doesn’t sensationalise it either. It’s hardly surprising the film has become a festival circuit favourite.
Insightful. A compelling story, beautifully acted, vividly brought to the screen.
Extraordinary. A really wonderful piece of cinema. I highly recommend it.
Bristling and observant. In the neorealist tradition, 'To Chiara' is a slice-of-life drama built around an idea and animated by a profound moral quandary. Carpignano, infinitely sympathetic and studiously unsentimental, doesn’t put a thumb on the scales. You feel the weight of Chiara’s dilemma, the cost of the knowledge she demands, and the heroism of her willingness to pay it.
Brilliant. Gripping and unpredictable.
An instantly engaging film of haunting intimacy. A director in command of the medium and physically entrenched in the milieu.
Carpignano confronts questions of power that haven’t cropped up before, directing his focus to the local gangster underworld while rejecting the gangster genre, concentrating not on the tough guys but those in their orbit left to ponder their own complicity and sort through the emotional rubble in the mafiosos’ wake. He’s not quite deconstructing the gangster picture, but he succeeds in draining all its allure. We can see this demimonde through the accessible vantage of an outsider, horrified and yet drawn in all the same.
Enthralling. Told in a wonderfully fluid and poetic fashion. With a documentary-like authenticity, this is a touching, powerful film with a lyrical visual palette and a superb sense of time and place.
Director: Jonas Carpignano
Cast: Swamy Rotolo, Claudio Rotolo, Carmela Fumo, Grecia Rotolo
Duration: 122mins
Country of Origin: Italy
M
Mature themes, drug references and coarse language
Poignant and persuasive. Put together with an ingenuity that deftly avoids every looming cliche. Carpignano doesn’t romanticise the mafia’s corruption or its violence, but he doesn’t sensationalise it either. It’s hardly surprising the film has become a festival circuit favourite.
Insightful. A compelling story, beautifully acted, vividly brought to the screen.
Extraordinary. A really wonderful piece of cinema. I highly recommend it.
Bristling and observant. In the neorealist tradition, 'To Chiara' is a slice-of-life drama built around an idea and animated by a profound moral quandary. Carpignano, infinitely sympathetic and studiously unsentimental, doesn’t put a thumb on the scales. You feel the weight of Chiara’s dilemma, the cost of the knowledge she demands, and the heroism of her willingness to pay it.
Brilliant. Gripping and unpredictable.
An instantly engaging film of haunting intimacy. A director in command of the medium and physically entrenched in the milieu.
Carpignano confronts questions of power that haven’t cropped up before, directing his focus to the local gangster underworld while rejecting the gangster genre, concentrating not on the tough guys but those in their orbit left to ponder their own complicity and sort through the emotional rubble in the mafiosos’ wake. He’s not quite deconstructing the gangster picture, but he succeeds in draining all its allure. We can see this demimonde through the accessible vantage of an outsider, horrified and yet drawn in all the same.
Enthralling. Told in a wonderfully fluid and poetic fashion. With a documentary-like authenticity, this is a touching, powerful film with a lyrical visual palette and a superb sense of time and place.

WINNER - 2022 ITALIAN ACADEMY AWARDS (DAVID DI DONATELLOS) - Best Actress (Swamy Rotolo)
WINNER – 2021 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL – Best European Film (Directors' Fortnight)
WINNER - 2021 ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL - Best Film
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2022 LOTTERYWEST FILMS, PERTH FESTIVAL
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2021 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2021 KARLOVY VARY FILM FESTIVAL
CENTREPIECE SELECTION - 2021 ST. ALI ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL

From multi award-winning writer/director Jonas Carpignano (A Ciambra, Mediterranea), TO CHIARA is a searing, gripping and remarkably poignant drama about a Calabrian teenage girl who learns some difficult truths about her close-knit family.

Gioia Tuara, Southern Italy. The Guerrasio family and their friends gather to celebrate the 18th birthday of Guilia, the eldest daughter of Claudio and Carmela. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 15-year-old sister Chiara (extraordinary screen discovery Swamy Rotolo) - who’s clearly Dad’s favourite - though it’s a happy occasion. But Chiara gradually senses that something is very wrong, and then… her father disappears.

Chaira’s mother exudes reassurances to her three daughters but offers no clear explanation, so the teenager begins her own investigations. The more Chiara learns, the more she is forced to decide what kind of future she wants for herself.

Ingeniously structured and building to a thrilling climax, Carpignano’s virtuoso, neo-realist tale never casts its protagonist as hero or victim, upending the mafia genre with an emotional and urgent new perspective. Intimate and furiously paced, it's a must-see.

To Chiara poster - a film by Jonas Carpignano

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NOW AVAILABLE TO OWN OR VIEW ON DEMAND