A Chiara: Gripping Third in Trilogy Surveys the Mafia from the Eyes of a Teen

By Karen Gordon

Rating: B+

Since 2015, award-winning Italian American filmmaker Jonas Carpignano has been making movies that explore the way globalization and other current social issues in Europe have affected the town of Gioia Taura, in Italy’s Calabria Region. His previous films, 2015’s Mediterranea, and 2017’s A Ciambra, dealt with the lives of African and Roma communities respectively, through the experiences of the individuals living through them.

A Chiara — which won the European Cinema’s Label award for best European Film at last year’s Cannes festival — is the third in what has turned into a trilogy of similarly themed movies. This one focuses on a homegrown problem, the local mafia, and how it plays into the lives of a particular family.

The film focuses on 15-year-old Chiara, played by newcomer Swamy Rotolo. Chiara is a happy, confident, strong-willed young woman, part of a close-knit and loving family. That closeness extends to her ever-present uncles and cousins.

The extended family has a big celebration to mark her sister Giulia’s (Grecia Rotolo) 18th birthday. The next day her father Claudio (Claudio Rotolo) disappears. There’s no explanation, and even though it clearly troubles Chiara, the rest of her family including her elder sister take this in stride. When she runs across a news story that says her father is a fugitive, and no one in her family will give her clear answers, Chiara becomes determined to find out what’s going on.

This isn’t a traditional movie about the mafia. Carpignano isn’t making a thriller. Nor is he investigating the ‘Ndrangherta or local mafia. He doesn’t judge any of the characters. A Chiara rather, is a story about the world as seen by this teenage girl. The film is part character study, part coming-of-age film.

That sense of character and intimacy is enhanced by the style and tone of the film. He’s shot it documentary-style, keeping the camera close in on Chiara. She’s an interesting character as well. Loving with her family, but also tough, with her own schoolgirl prejudices, the film is based around her choices, her determination and independent streak that lead her to a turning point in her life.

The film’s tone and the story structure are both naturalistic, and realistic. Carpignano doesn’t force huge moments of upheaval in the film, or story points where characters have sudden shifts of personality to heighten the drama or bring the story to a dramatic conclusion. We’re experiencing what Chiara experiences, and again that documentary feel works to keep the story intimate.

Remarkably, none of the actors are professionals and they’re all related in real life. Chiara’s family is her actual family, and that includes Claudio Rotolo, who plays her on screen father, and is very strong in the film.

But the movie belongs to Swamy Rotolo, who as Chiara is a force: incredibly watchable, showing us the inner life of her character with subtlety. The film’s naturalism and the strength of Rotolo’s performance are part of what makes A Chiara compelling. We’re watching the world through her eyes, and the film feels emotionally true.

If the film has a weak point it comes from of a turn towards the end. Arguably, for those of us who don’t know the history of the mafia in that town, or the Calabrian government’s current laws regarding the children of mafia families, the turn feels emotionally abrupt.

But even still, there are no false notes. The situation shown in the film is based in reality, and it doesn’t undermine where the film has taken us. Rotolo’s performance never flags, and Carpignano’s choice to show us the issues through the eyes of this young woman makes for a solid and rewarding film.

A Chiara. Written and directed by Jonas Carpignano. Starring Swamy Rotolo and Claudio Rotolo. Opens June 3 in Toronto (Carlton Cinema), Vancouver (VanCity), and Montreal (Cinema Du Parc), expanding in the following weeks.