![\"Image](\"https:\/\/cineuropa.org\/Files\/2019\/09\/04\/1567595866469.jpg?1573331388820\")
<\/p>\nReviewed by Kirsten Anderberg. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2020.<\/p>\n
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“Nevia” is a coming of age film about a 17 year old girl living in poverty with her grandmother, aunt, and little sister in Italy. The older women in her family are engaged in illegal activities which forces Nevia to grow up quickly. Due to Nevia’s age, and her innocence, the women relatives are pressuring her to marry a local man who is interested in her, so that she can move out of her grandmother’s home.<\/p>\n
Nevia had more women in its cast than most movies I viewed this year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Due to this, the movie broached profound issues that touch girls and women everywhere. The sensitive topic of the difference between a whore and a wife is brought up by Nevia, in the context of the world she sees around her. The societal bind which Mary Daly so succinctly coined in the phrase, “any woman who is no man’s is every man’s,” puts pressure on Nevia to accept marriage to a man she is not interested in as a means of protection from all men, and security from poverty. At one point, the audience wonders how much pressure Nevia will need to finally break her into submitting to marriage, as her relatives did before her. Yet one cheers and hopes for Nevia to break free of past submission to these limited choices for women’s lives.<\/p>\n
“Nevia” is in Italian, with English subtitles. Virginia Apicella won the 2019 Orizzonti Award for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for her riveting portrayal of Nevia. Pietro Ragusa gives a stirring performance as the head of the circus, as well. The film’s dark palette and minimalist cinematography reflects the looming doom in her existing home environment. These dull colors and depressing scenarios are juxtaposed with bright primary colors, circus music, and an environment of joy and happiness, along with the mystery of circus folks, when the circus comes to town. Life choices requiring courage follow Nevia throughout the film.<\/p>\n
There were some similarities between this movie and the 2019 Italian movie, “Easy Living,” by directors Orso and Peter Miyakawa. Both movies highlight teenagers who have an unstable home life, who are searching for something better, and take risks to make their lives into something they are passionate about, rather than accepting limitations placed on them by others. I recommend both movies, although they are very different in tone. “Nevia” is a heavy drama whereas “Easy Living” is lighter with comedy.<\/p>\n
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Reviewed by Kirsten Anderberg. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2020. “Nevia” is a coming of age film about a 17 year old girl living in poverty with her grandmother, aunt, and little sister in Italy. The older women in her family are engaged in illegal activities which forces Nevia to grow up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2020"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/247861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46558,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46251\/revisions\/46558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}