A breathtaking film to look at, this understated Venice Grand Jury Prize winner explores war and gender as a deserting soldier causes tension in a remote Italian commune hidden away in the mountains, and thus spared from the horrors of WWII.

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Lensed by Mikhail Krichman, who has shot all of Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev’s feature films thus far such as The Return (2003) and Leviathan (2014), Vermiglio benefits very much from the cinematographer’s wonderful eye for capturing natural landscapes. 

In fact, the best thing about the film is its visuals, as director Maura Delpero transports us back in time to Northern Italy in 1944 as WWII reached its last leg.  The horrors of war thankfully haven’t reached this isolated commune in the mountains, but a deserting soldier named Pietro arrives to seek refuge. 

In this place where conservative values reign, Pietro’s presence causes some ‘changes’. It’s not for me to say what they are, but what I can say is that Vermiglio explores two key themes. 

First, the spectre of war haunts the village—there are folks who strategically remain hidden, smartly refusing to be part of the meat grinder at the expense of being labelled unpatriotic. 

As a character says, men are cowards and they are idiots.  Make what you will of that view, but it’s usually cowardly idiots that start wars in the first place. 

“Men who come back from the war have secrets. It’s like their tongues have been cut off.”

Second, the girls in the film have to face the prospect of their ‘destinies’ set for them by their father, who is the village’s only schoolteacher. 

This is the heart of Vermiglio—the tension inherent in a family where only one girl can further her studies, while the rest are fated to drop out.  The war isn’t over yet, and these are tough times and everyone is expected to lend a hand. 

Delpero’s work may be breathtaking to look at, but it is sometimes too reliant on the ‘gimmicks’ of art filmmaking, in this case, the use of ellipses and the obvious planting of solemn classical pieces (Chopin, Vivaldi, etc.) to work the emotions, which I didn’t intend to give in to. 

I still enjoyed its slice-of-life pacing and thematic treatment of war and gender, and to be fair, the narrative does bring us somewhere meaningful though in a very understated way. 

Grade: B

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