The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviewsCurzon Home Cinema

Il Mio Corpo

Il Mio Corpo | Movie review
7 December 2020
Mersa Auda
Avatar
Mersa Auda
7 December 2020

Movie and show review

Mersa Auda

Il Mio Corpo

★★★★★

Release date

11th December 2020

Platform

Curzon Home Cinema

The arid Sicilian landscape of Michele Pennetta’s docu-film Il Mio Corpo silently communicates all the discontent that the young director wishes to transmit. For those who inhabit the quiet part of the island depicted in the movie, stillness denotes stagnation, the parched earth speaks of scarce resources and the daily challenges of survival seem inescapable. Selected for Cannes’ ACID section, this is Pennetta’s third project focusing on the perspective of the lower, struggling classes.

The action is partially fictionalised but it recreates the realities of its protagonists who play themselves and retain their real names. The documentary looks at the parallel, separate lives of two teenagers whose circumstances are different but tinged with the same hue of melancholy and hopelessness. Oscar is a Sicilian boy who spends his days scavenging scrap metal with his bossy father and brother; Stanley is a young Nigerian migrant who helps the parish priest and, through him, gets odd jobs such as picking fruit or herding sheep.  The former has many younger siblings and an aunt who came to live with the family because his mother is no longer in the picture; the latter shares a modest flat with a fellow Nigerian youth who is his sole friend and confidante, but who is at risk of deportation. 

Both teens are introverted, humble and hardworking. They passively drift along the only path available to them, but their moments of silent reflection hint at relentless inner activity shaking their private worlds. Some aspects of Il Mio Corpo are comparable to Rosi’s Fire at Sea, the Lampedusa documentary juxtaposing the life of a local child with the experiences of the immigrants reaching the island by boat. While Rosi presents the two worlds as separate, Pennetta suggests that the frustrations, fear and sadness beneath the mask of outer circumstances are essentially identical. He deliberately adopts an understated approach, making the powerful stillness of the island seamlessly blend into the inaudible screams of those who inhabit it.

There are fleeting moments of joy, such as when the boys engage in sport, in which they seem to come up for air briefly before they are submerged into reality again. The intimate, domestic scenes never feel staged or inauthentic, and they subtly uncover a wider social desolation. Il Mio Corpo floats somewhere between drama and documentary, expressing a feeling rather than offering entertainment or facts. Every element comes together harmoniously to create an atmospheric, lyrical and bittersweet picture.

★★★★★

Mersa Auda

Il Mio Corpo is released digitally on demand on 11th December 2020.

Watch the trailer for Il Mio Corpo here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

The Road Dance

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

The Innocents

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Benediction

★★★★★
Lauren Devine
Read More

This Much I Know to Be True

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin)

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Vortex

★★★★★
Joseph Owen
Read More

Father Stu

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Everything Everywhere All at Once

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

★★★★★
Musanna Ahmed
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Mersa Auda

Il Mio Corpo

★★★★★

Release date

11th December 2020

Platform

Curzon Home Cinema

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Ladies’ fashion: Seven wardrobe staples for summer
    Fashion & Lifestyle
  • Julius Caesar at Shakespeare’s Globe
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Operation Mincemeat at Riverside Studios
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Viagra Boys at the Forum
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Buddhist on Death Row by David Sheff
    ★★★★★
    Literature
  • The Road Dance
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Innocents
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Benediction
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Banter Jar at Lion & Unicorn Theatre: “An authentic and timely one-woman show”
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Three-Michelin-star restaurants L’Effervescence and SingleThread announce first post-Covid collaboration in Tokyo
    Food & Drinks
  • Operation Mincemeat at Riverside Studios
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Viagra Boys at the Forum
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • “There’s something very tender if you reconnect with your parents when they’re falling into pieces”: Gaspar Noé on Vortex
    Cinema & Tv
  • Tool at the O2 Arena
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin)
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Silent Night | Movie review
Liam Gallagher: Down by the River Thames | Live review