SILVER

[PICCOLO CORPO]
In this striking debut from Italian director Laura Samani — a dark folktale about grief, faith and the power of hope — a young mother embarks on an odyssey to save her stillborn child's soul. In 1900 on a remote island off the coast of Italy's northeastern Friuli Venezia Giulia region, Agata (Celeste Cescutti) is grieving the loss of her newborn child. When the local priest informs her that her unbaptized daughter is doomed to remain in limbo, the woman decides to take matters into her own hands, recalling talk of a distant church where such stillborn children are resurrected long enough to be granted entry into heaven. Desperate and determined, Agata embarks on the hazardous journey north toward the fabled sanctuary. Capturing the harsh beauty of the region and mirroring the resilience of her central character, Samani crafts a small-scale epic that binds the material with the spiritual to reflect a fierce young woman's quest to overcome the most devasting of losses. Winner, Best New Director, 2022 David di Donatello Awards; Winner, Best Director, 2022 Dublin International Film Festival. Official Selection, 2021 Cannes, Toronto, London and Busan film festivals. DIR/SCR Laura Samani; SCR Marco Borromei, Elisa Dondi; PROD Alberto Fasulo, Nadia Trevisan. Italy/France/Slovenia, 2021, color, 89 min. In Italian, Slovenian, Friulian and Venetian with English subtitles. NOT RATED

No AFI Member passes accepted.