La Gradiva

A captivating film about a field trip, that travels between promises of the future and ghosts of the past. Teenagers, on the verge of a whole new chapter are, in many ways, waiting for an unravelling. The lingering narration brings intense longing to moments where nothing is happening, yet everything is. Gazes look for gazes or just stand by and watch, whilst as in Won Kar-wai’s films, bodies move close to each other, past each other, hoping and disappointed.

A group of French teenagers travels to Pompeii with their Latin teacher to study the petrified history the volcanic eruption left behind. The frustrated teacher tries to keep the group’s focus on ancient art’s depictions of the moments before disaster, but the teenagers’ present-day drama interrupts everything.

The young actors are insanely talented, and so is Antonia Buresi, who plays the teacher. Director-screenwriter Marine Atlan’s debut really shows her background as a cinematographer. The enigmatic and observant cinematography links the field trip’s mundaneness with peculiar magic. Things feel as though they were unknown and strange, for they’re being felt for the first time. The encounter between fantasy and harsh reality has to do with the teenagers’ stage of life, but the film’s overtone also brings to mind Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy and Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera.

Helmi Kajaste (translated by Vilja Hynynen)