Happy as Lazzaro

It's summer at Inviolata, an isolated rural estate, where an extended family of tobacco farmers toil under the rule of a domineering marchesa, and where the handsome and hard-working Lazzaro (captivating newcomer Adriano Tardiolo), a young man imbued with a saint-like innocence, is alternately adored and taken advantage of. When the marchesa's self-absorbed son, Tancredi (Luca Chikovani) first visits the fields, he senses an opportunity, and embroils Lazzaro in an audacious plan that spirals out of control and throws the estate into a complicated chaos that takes everybody by surprise. Channelling the spirit of Pasolini, Rohrwacher's fascinating, deeply affecting parable casts an ethereal, wondrous spell, and confirms her status as one of the most inventive and compelling voices in contemporary Italian cinema with this utterly transporting film experience.