The Sicilian Girl (Italy)

The final night of the New Italian Cinema Festival at SIFF Cinema was very solid.  Two very different movies, one serious and one fun and both delivered for me on their promise.  First up was the deadly serious The Italian Girl.  The director was in attendance and he described his pleasure at returning to Seattle to present the dramatized version of a story he presented in documentary form roughly 10 years earlier at SIFF.  He also told an amusing anecdote about how on his first trip to the area his hotel room had featured a copy of the Kama Sutra in place of a bible.  But that's neither here nor there.. 

So here's the description of the "true events" as described in the festival program

"One November morning in 1991, 17-year-old Rita (Veronica D'Agostino) approached the Chief Prosecutor of Palermo, intent on vindicating her father and brother’s mafia-related deaths. From that day forward Rita’s days are numbered. According to Sicilian tradition, the daughter of a mafia family should observe the rule of silence. But Rita is not like the others, and she openly rebels against the traditional male-dominated organization. Repudiated and threatened by her boyfriend, her hometown, and even her mother (Lucia Sardo), Rita is forced to leave Sicily and move to Rome"

I can't speak for the documentary, having never seen it.  But the dramatic version (the director claimed most of it is true) made for a fairly powerful movie.  Not knowing anything about the case it had some twists that I was genuinely surprised at.  In fact I think not knowing helped so much that I'm reluctant to really describe the details at all in case you get a chance to see it.  The casting and the performances seemed right on - and the female lead got to play out an arc of learning and acceptance deeper than one tends to see in mafia films.  I'll also say, as a compliment, that this in no way feels like a documentary.  You're getting a full narrative motion picture that's professionally done both from the story and technical perspectives.  Solid B+ work.