THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS.
by Jarrod Jones. Darkness, a peculiar trauma tale that teases apocalypse and delivers it in the form of strained metaphor, is the debut feature from Italian director Emanuela Rossi. If her next project is made with the same level of assuredness and is less obvious about what it wants to accomplish, it should be a doozy.
For now, we’re left to consider Rossi’s modern feminist fairy tale, where three young sisters (Denise Tantucci, Gaia Bocci, and Olimpia Tosatto) are stashed away from the brutal wasteland just outside their provincial home by their mercurial father (Valerio Binasco). The story, co-written by Rossi and Claudio Corbucci, is divided into chapters and demarcated by paintings from San Marino artist Nicoletta Ceccoli, conveying innocence amid fabulistic gloom.
Darkness is unabashedly gloomy. Its moody atmosphere is established with a shot of a blood-spattered kitchen, suggesting Rossi’s dark fantasy world might also be a horror show. The isolation of this broken family, shuffling sullenly in their shuttered home with resentments brewing between most of them, seems to guarantee it. Distractingly, the film emphasizes its extreme dystopic cues (gas masks, boarded-up windows, and plastic tunnels) so blatantly you begin to suspect almost immediately that those deadbolts on the front door are more to keep the girls in instead of keeping some undefinable doom out. Something’s up in this house, and it probably won’t end well.
Rossi builds her mystery, such as it is, through a routine. The sisters, Stella, Luce, and Aria, brush each other’s hair, measure their growth on the wall in the bathroom, and primp for the arrival of their father, who has ventured out foraging for food. (Note that there’s no mother in the picture.) He’s mostly seen coming and going wearing that gas mask and a fearsome trenchcoat, and Rossi frames him as a gatekeeping titan. When he comes home, he reports death and desolation from the sun, which, we’re told, broke some time ago.
So they eat, and they pray. (Dad’s a God-fearing man.) After dinner, they listen to music — the only thing they have left of the colorful life Stella so vividly remembers. Dad lights a cigarette and chugs wine (wait, what?), and it looks like a pleasant night, all things considered. You begin to understand the vast gulf between the girls’ sheltered lives and the one he experiences outside. Then Luce (Bocci) asks when the sun will heal and why women are especially susceptible to its rays. That triggers a violent outburst from Dad.
Later, the family celebrates “Air Day,” an ersatz tradition where the girls are allowed to view sunshine from the vantage of their living room. They’re decked out in coats, hoodies, and helmets — Luce, the more paranoid of the three, wears a gas mask — and one new accouterment: goggles that all but obscure their vision, worn upon the insistence of their dear father. In case you missed it, the father is keeping Stella, Luce, and Aria in the dark, holding them back from what he doesn’t want them to have. Yeah, something is definitely up, and I bet you’ll guess what’s actually going on before the eldest, Stella (Tantucci), discovers it for herself.
To Rossi’s credit, the film is compellingly assembled in its first half hour. You almost hope for a more substantial twist than what you know is coming. I’ll still recommend Darkness for all its shortcomings due to the ambition behind its visuals and the strength of its cast, all of whom are convincing in their caution and hostilities. Rossi might fumble the twists, and her frustratingly shallow ending might blunt a spirited conversation about the film’s themes. But for a debut filmmaker, Rossi has flexed impressive subtlety regarding her film’s more distressing aspects, like the father’s monstrous abuse. It’s here where Darkness takes a more frightful, memorable shape.
4.5 out of 10
Darkness is available to stream on Film Movement Plus.
Directed by Emanuela Rossi.
Written by Emanuela Rossi and Claudio Corbucci.
Cinematography Marco Graziaplena.
Starring Denise Tantucci, Valerio Binasco, Gaia Bocci, Olimpia Tosatto Elettra Mallaby, Francesco Genovese.
Produced by Claudio Corbucci.
Not rated. Contains themes of sexual abuse and abrupt moments of physical violence.
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