Le pupille, the Italian short at the Oscars is an ode to childhood

A small story, but only for the duration on the screen and for the chronological age of the protagonists. The pupilsthe short available on Disney +, actually looks more like a tiny gem set among the family jewels in some dusty attic.

Many powerful stories boast the power of simplicity and this one directed by Alice Rohrwacher makes no difference. It doesn’t cause a sensation, it doesn’t sparkle and it doesn’t take all the air out of the room, yet it has a hypnotic effect in its shattered everyday life.

The project it takes its cue from the letters that Elsa Morante sent to her friend Goffredo and boasts the production of the Oscar Alfonso Cuaròn who in the story of a provincial past, amidst the hardships of a female orphanage, was able to grasp a glimmer of hope and a pinch of sarcasm.

The story takes place during the Christmas period within the walls of a female religious institute managed with an iron fist by Mother Fioralba (Alba Rohrwacher).

The Superior puts it on stage the Nativity with the pupils (this is how he calls the orphan girls)in order to attract benefactors, such as the rich lady Rosa (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), in the hope that they can generously contribute to the livelihood of the girls.

The climate is that of the economic hardships of a remote village, where it is hard to get by breaking your back with the most humble and dangerous jobs. For this group of nuns, therefore, the situation remains rather precarious, despite the proverbial austerity and military rigor of the superior.

This short trip in everyday life of these little girls without a family and without a future is enlivened by an incredible twist, the gift of a cake for the holidays. It is an unexpected and disproportionate luxury for small companies, which are almost considered as the waste of society.

Here, then, that the tone of the story changes completely and it ranges between the most diverse colors as a painter does with a palette full of so many colors… and all available.

The sensitivity and grace of the director it never flows into rhetoric and accompanies the public with sobriety, avoiding treating the young protagonists with descent and welcoming with a bittersweet smile what life has in store for them.

Own this formula dry and devoid of pietism it decreed not only Italian but international consensus towards a story that is deeply rooted in the experience of our country, but acquires a universal value. An ode to childhoodin short, which is sometimes lost but can be found, just like an heirloom, almost forgotten, in the attic.

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