– Guido Chiesa combines sentimental comedy with a social reflection on the theme of home and urban transformation, primarily leaning on Greta Scarano’s convincing performance
Greta Scarano and Marco D’Amore in Piccolo miracolo
Between buildings destined for demolition and new residential complexes ready to soar up in their place, Piccolo miracolo by Guido Chiesa – presented in competition at the 72nd Taormina Film Festival and hitting Italian cinemas on 25 June via 01 Distribution – depicts a transformation both urban and personal. Based on Fabio Bartolomei’s novel, La grazia del demolitore, the film uses the theme of property speculation in Rome to tell a story about individual redemption, interweaving a sentimental comedy with a social tale.
Davide Lancia (Marco D’Amore) is the son of a powerful Roman builder. Cultured, wealthy, passionate about art and used to negotiating the world with his many privileges, which he’s never really called into question, Davide is entrusted with a task by his father (Giorgio Colangeli), which will confirm him as heir to the family business: he must empty an old building of its residents and supervise its demolition in order to make way for a profitable real estate project. But Ursula (Greta Scarano) – the only remaining resident in the building who’s also blind and resolutely opposed to being evicted – complicates his plans. The rivals meet in the lobby of the building. Davide gets close to Ursula without revealing his true identity, pretending to be a gasman, and slowly comes into close contact with a reality very different from his own. In this sense, the film delivers a moral parable based on an openly symbolic role reversal, whereby a blind person teaches the protagonist how to truly see.
From the film’s opening images, Chiesa highlights the contrast between the city’s varied geography. Drones flying over the Roman suburbs dialogue with villas immersed in green and better-off middle-class neighbourhoods, creating an urban mosaic in which the theme of home becomes political as well as emotional. The demolition of a building isn’t just an economic operation; it impacts memories, relationships and ways of belonging.
The film’s social side is one of its most interesting elements, but Nicoletta Micheli’s screenplay – based on a subject he wrote with Edoardo Leo – gradually moves towards a more conciliatory tone and the sentimental dimension prevails. The subsequent introduction of secondary characters who enhance the film’s comic vein – including the team of construction workers led by Gian Marco Tognazzi – alters the overall tone, and the story twists and turns through a series of improbable developments, amidst misunderstandings, attempted robberies and moral conversions which end up detracting from the initial conflict.
In this context, it’s first and foremost Greta Scarano who lends the film emotional credibility. The actress avoids any kind of complacency and crafts an autonomous and pugnacious character who’s defined by the way she tackles everyday obstacles – routes to memorise, building yards which mess with her bearings – rather than by her disability. Ultimately, it’s a performance which won the actress-director (who was similarly acclaimed for her directorial debut, Siblings, which scooped the Nastro d’Argento last year) the Best Actress Prize, courtesy of the Taormina Film Festival’s international jury, presided over by Jane Campion.
Piccolo miracolo was produced by No Name Entertainment and Alea Film together with Rai Cinema, and in collaboration with Sky.
(Translated from Italian)
