/ Director
Giulio Manfredonia
/ Cast
Davide Veronese, Tommaso Ferro, Maria Paiato, Pietro Bontempo, Beatrice Panizzolo.
/ Length
82 mins.
/ Year
2005
/ Sponsor
Date :: Thursday, November 5
Time :: 7:00 pm
Location :: MoPA in Balboa Park
Cost :: $5.00 donation suggested
Language :: Italian with English subtitles
Tickets :: On location
L'estate di mio fratello
My Brother's Summer
When little Sergio and his family leave Verona for the countryside each summer, the temporary relocation offers the young boy an opportunity to let his imagination run free and distance him from his parents' troubled dynamics. Reflective of the period's attitudes, the father directs the household's every function through his wife's submissive role. The tensions further cause Sergio to seek respite outside of the household as a way to diminish his solitude.
Sergio's existence is further thrown into a tailspin when his parents announce the upcoming birth of a sibling. As he begins to consider what the effects of such an addition might be on his own life, Sergio inserts an imaginary little brother into his daily adventures. He suspects that his life will be rendered difficult and, as their games evolve, the imaginary play takes on troubling directions. In one instance Sergio even imagines burning his little brother alive.
"One senses and deeper sense of knowing a loss of innocence"
The boy's resentment of his little brother takes on a further dimension when, after his mother miscarries, Sergio takes it to have been caused by his imaginings. The guilt feelings manifest in his imaginary brother's declaration: “Since I am dead you have to die too”. This of course signals the symbolic death of Sergio's old personality and world, and a new direction in his evolution as a person.
Nevertheless, while one senses a loss of innocence and deeper sense of knowing in the boy Sergio, his penchant for the imaginary remains alive and well. As a matter of fact, it would appear that this might be the director Pietro Reggiani's way of proposing that a lively imagination is a way in which we might cope with the impositions of life. Contrasted to his parents' relationship, Sergio's relationship with the world around him is much more engaging, expressive and alive.
The director, Reggiani, with young Davide Veronese, who gives a memorable performance as Sergio, and Tommaso Ferro in his supportive role as the imaginary brother, has wrought a wonderfully produced and acted film that reminds us of, and takes place along, De Sica's Sciuscià, Rossellini's Germany Year Zero, to Amelio's Stolen Children and Salvatores' I am not Scared.
BRANDING: MIRIELLO GRAFICO // WEB DESIGN + MARKETING: JACOB TYLER CREATIVE GROUP
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