Luce

This is the Italian South, but not the way you’re used to seeing it: a grey winter in a small industrial town and a steel-coloured sea you prefer to stay away from. There, we meet a girl in her early twenties who remains nameless throughout LUCE, the new film by writer-director duo Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino. A brunette who lives alone and is often told to smile more, the film’s beguiling protagonist seems like the kind of girl who doesn’t keep secrets. And yet, she does: she smuggles a flip phone into a prison with the hope that her father will call her from it. Luzi and Bellino have a sensitive and generous approach to storytelling: they let emotions lead. Thanks to the clever script, the film never tips into excessive sentimentality when showing a daughter’s relationship to her absent father solely through phone conversations. (Cineuropa)