Run time: 119 mins

(Subtitled)

Language: Italian

Maura Delpero’s Second World War drama finds extraordinary detail in an ordinary existence, following one family through the final months of the conflict without ever treating history as the main event.

In the snowy Italian Alps, Sicilian soldier Pietro arrives in the remote village of Vermiglio and takes shelter with schoolmaster Cesare and his sprawling family. Cesare’s eldest daughter Lucia is drawn to the newcomer, and their relationship gradually becomes the centre of village gossip before marriage changes the shape of both their lives. When Pietro returns to Sicily after the war, Lucia is left facing an uncertain future.

What makes things so distinctive is the refusal to hurry. Delpero watches this household as it eats, argues, prays, works and raises its children, allowing seemingly minor details to carry as much weight as major events. Characters feel natural, particularly Lucia who gradually reveals the frustrations beneath her composed exterior. The deliberate pace and sober tone could have so easily made the drama feel remote but it only lends to humanising a community whose deeply rooted traditions continue largely untouched by the upheavals beyond its borders.