The Beautiful Summer

If the sun has felt like it’s been a long time coming lately, warm your weary bones with director Laura Luchetti’s effervescently loose adaptation of the proud (and persecuted) antifascist author Cesare Pavese’s novel of the same name.

Set in Turin in 1938, with the spectre of war not far off, it follows country girl Ginia (excellent newcomer Yile Yara Vianello) as she lands in the big city and, sharing an apartment with her big brother Severino (Nudes actors Nicolas Maupas). scores a gig as a seamstress at a fashion house. But life’s turned upside-down the moment she first spies the vibrant Amelia (Deva Cassel, daughter of Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel), following her into a bohemian world of artists where anything and anyone is fair game, in this audience favourite from the Locarno Film Festival.