The Ciambra [A Ciambra] **** (2017, Pio Amato, Koudous Seihon, Damiano Amato) – Movie Review

Writer-director Jonas Carpignano’s gritty, penetrating film of the painful coming of age from adolescence to adulthood, set in a small Romani community in Calabria, is really intense and immersive.

The Ciambra [A Ciambra] (2017) tells a desperately sad, tragic story beautifully done in the neo-Realist style. The Amato family of actors, who play most of the main roles, is truly remarkable. But most of the film hinges on the boy, Pio Amato, who has to hold the whole film together – and he does!

At 14, Pio drinks, smokes and moves easily between the local Italians, the African refugees and his fellow Romani. When his older brother Cosimo (Damiano Amato) disappears, Pio sets out to prove he is ready to step into his shoes, but things start to go very wrong. It turns out being a man is more difficult than it looks, at least for Pio, and in Calabria, the toe of Italy.

It was Italy’s submission to the Foreign Language Film Award at the 90th Academy Awards.

Pio Amato and Damiano Amato both appear in Carpignano’s 16-minute short Young Lions of Gypsy [A Ciambra] (2014) and Pio Amato and Koudous Seihon both appear in Carpignano’s first feature Mediterranea (2015). 

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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