Vermiglio

Vermiglio is the kind of town where the residents will likely tell you that nothing ever happens there. It's a remote, small town set in the mountains of northern Italy, with a population of around 2,000. Writer/director Maura Alpero's father grew up in the town, and she set out to capture what life must have been like for him growing up in such a place near the end of World War II, capturing all the simple minutiae of daily life as well as the interiority of the people who live in such an isolated world. The result is a fascinating piece of slow cinema that effectively captures the status quo of a beautiful mountain town while showing how hard even the slightest deviation from the norm can impact so many lives.

Much of the first half of the movie simply introduces the viewer to the routines of a family of 10, headed by an educated and philosophical teacher, Caesar (Tommaso Ragno). The camera roams around town as characters trudge through the snow, tending to their animals, preparing food and looking after the numerous children. You can see the breaths of the people even when they are inside, and the family sleeps three or four to a bed in order to stay warm. But there are no complaints; this is simply how life is, and you have to adapt. Caesar remains mostly impassive throughout, even as the family loses a baby to sickness. His wife is already pregnant again, and the next one will just have to be stronger.

The focus slowly shifts to show us the perspective of the family's three young women, each struggling in their own ways against the limitations of the patriarchal society they find themselves in. The youngest is deemed the smartest and will be the only one allowed to leave the village to attend a boarding school. The middle daughter wants to leave town as well, but is already finding her ambitions dashed, as she is expected to stay with the family and eventually find a husband in town. They both adore their oldest sister Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), who seems to have insights and knowledge that the younger sisters crave. But they all must attend to their duties as laid down by their father, and that's just how things are.

Lucia ends up becoming the central character, as she immediately falls in love with a handsome but mysteriously quiet young soldier named Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), a Sicilian soldier who rolls into town after saving the life of one of the family’s uncles during the war. Pietro causes an uproar within the community because he is a deserter, and the townsfolk are divided on whether or not they should even give shelter to such a person. The prouder townsfolk boastfully proclaim that deserting is shameful, but Caesar points out that war is a pointless pursuit started by stupid, fascist men, so why should anyone throw their life away for that?

Lucia, not really fussed about all of that, goes through a short courtship with Pietro, as the two exchange simple love notes, hold hands, kiss in secret. They are quickly married, and Lucia is pregnant in no time; the movie isn't always interested in the details, and time often passes offscreen without comment. Life just continues to move on.

Your interest in the movie may depend on how willing you are to get absorbed in the inter-family dynamics at play within this quiet setting. There is a moment of great drama towards the end that certainly upends things for a few of the characters, but for the most part, the story is a simple one. The real meat is seeing how each character is reacting and at times rebelling against the lives they've been dealt with. Alpero is clever at how her characters communicate these desires, often done only with a glance or a simple line of dialogue. These desires (especially those of the women) are almost all tragically not realized in this world, and even when they are, they don't seem to work out the way they were envisioned.

The spectacularly gorgeous mountaintop environment is captured well by cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, never letting the viewer forget that this land, while beautiful, is cold, hard and dangerous. The problems of the family are common and quaint, contrasted well against the soaring hugeness of their daily setting. A girl rides by on a bike to speak briefly with Lucia as she fills up buckets with water -- a scene so simple but made to feel almost otherworldly due to the fact that they converse on seemingly the edge of the world.

"Vermiglio" is a captivating window into a different time and place, and if you are able to get lost in the lives of Alpero's deceptively simple characters, there's a lot to enjoy here. Some might be frustrated by the movie's often glacial pace, but there's an entire world contained on this mountaintop, rich and complex, even if it primarily exists in the minds of our characters and rarely explodes into what we typically consider cinematic drama.