Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Upon his release from prison, an ex-convict returns to his beloved city of Genoa, and to his lover.
Pietro Marcello's debut feature is a singular hybrid of documentary and lyrical fiction, blending archival footage with intimate portraiture to capture Genoa's fading working-class world and the tender love story between ex-convict Enzo and transgender woman Mary. The cinematography is exceptional — shot on Super 8 and 16mm with archival inserts, it achieves a haunting, painterly texture that feels genuinely irreplaceable. Novelty is high because the film's form is unmistakably Marcello's own: essayistic, poetic, refusing genre conventions. Plot and acting are harder to evaluate in conventional terms given the hybrid nature — the narrative is elliptical and episodic, more mood than story, which suits the work but limits dramatic momentum. The ending, while quietly moving, dissipates rather than resolves, feeling slightly incomplete even by the film's own anti-narrative logic.