SWEETHEART

Born in Palermo, but raised in Rome, Margherita Spampinato worked as a production secretary and a casting director on around 30 features while directing the shorts, Tommasina (2009) and Segreti (2011). She has now made her feautre bow and Gioia mia/Sweetheart is the latest little gem unearthed by CinemaItaliaUK.

Heartbroken because babysitter Violetta (Camille Dugay) has returned to Paris to get married, tweenager Nico (Marco Fiore) is dispatched from Milan to Sicily to stay with his Great-Aunt Gela (Aurora Quattrocchi). She lives in an apartment building that is supposedly haunted, but the priest won't come to exorcise it, even though they drive Gela's dog, Frank, to distraction. Dismayed by the lack of Wi-Fi, the old-fashioned food, and a spooky Sacred Heart picture on his bedroom wall, Nico reluctantly tries on his new pyjamas for an afternoon nap after Gela ticks him off for wearing nail polish and for playing video games on his phone.

When they go for a stroll, Gela tells Nico about his grandmother, Adele, who died giving birth to Agostino, who also failed to survive. Nico's father had promised to name his son after his lost brother, but he hadn't kept his word. Bored waiting while Gela talks to the priest, Nico refuses to play football with some local children after Rosa (Martina Ziami) gives him a long, hard stare. Instead, he comes home to play with his phone and complain to his mother that she has sent him back to the Dark Ages.

Despite his frustrations, Nico is intrigued by the way Frank barks when he senses something in the room and he notices the light fitting swaying gently, as though in a draft. However, he gets scared when he hears him in the night and Gela has to get out a camp bed so he can sleep in her room. When it starts to thunder, Nico helps her bring in the sheets drying on the balcony and he bridles when she says they have to iron them. Feeling too hot to sleep, Nico asks if they can chat and Gela blames Violetta for teaching him a bad habit. He asks why she doesn't have children and wonders if it was because she was ugly. Snorting, Gela claims to have had lots of suitors, although she is reluctant to reply when Nico demands to know if she has ever kissed anyone on the lips. Tutting, she suggests that Nico lulls himself to sleep by thinking of all the kisses he will share.

Waking to find that Gela has gone out, Nico makes a mess trying to cook eggs and heat milk, As Gela tells him off, he smashes a vase that had been an heirloom and she marches him downstairs to play with Rosa when she goes to church. Blindfolding him, Rosa and three younger boys taunt Nico in the courtyard and pour water over his legs. Stomping off, he sits by Gela's door until she returns and gets cross because he had missed a call from his dad. She calls him a `wuss' for being bested by smaller kids and he despairs of her because she always insists on having the last word.

Bored enough to help with the ironing, Nico turns down an invitation from Masuccia (Clara Salvo) to join the others at the beach. Gela teaches him to play Briscola and vows to keep hold of his phone until he beats her. But she has to go out and Nico finds the phone after a prolonged search and pleads with Violetta to call him. Instead, Rosa comes to the door and pushes her way inside. She wants to know why he won't come out and tells him that the shivers he feels are caused by passing spirits. Impressed that Nico has a phone, she asks if she can play the zombie game and they sit together on the sofa.

Gela teaches Nico how to make his bed and cook some simple dishes. She is wary, however, when he wanders in to find her using Tarot cards with Mariula (Concetta Ingrassia) and Lia (Renata Sajeva). They ask Nico to pick a card and they tell Gela that The Eyeless Lady is crucial to removing the spirits from the building, as her secret needs to be revealed. Curious, but confused, Nico asks Rosa to play bricola when Gela goes out. However, she wants to see what's inside a box on the old lady's wardrobe and they find a camera and lots of monochrome photographs of Gela and Adele and Rosa comes to the conclusion that both women were in love with the photographer.

Joining the boys in the courtyard, Rosa suggests that the venture into the abandoned apartment. But they decide to sneak into Mrs Halfdead's rooms and dress up in her clothes and bounce on the bed before they hear a noise and beat a hasty retreat. Nico asks Rosa about the spirits and she teases him about being scared. He protests, but is nervous about going into the empty apartment across from Gela.

Cross with Gela for not returning his phone when he beats her at Briscola, Nico calls her a liar and tells her that he has found the photos of Adele. He wants to know why she keeps them hidden when the other old ladies have frames galore in their rooms. Gela informs him that it's none of his business and he flounces off to play with Rosa. The other boys taunt him for being too afraid to enter the abandoned apartment, but he insists he's game and Rosa cuts him some slack when he lets her believe that he's only in Sicily because Violetta had died.

The next day, Rosa shows Nico how to use her grandma's x-ray to open the latch and they explore the abandoned rooms by torchlight. He feels exhilarated, yet panics when he momentarily can't find her. But he's relieved when they slip out and he returns to find Gela looking through her photos. She explains that she and Adele took the pictures of each other and confides that, when someone dies, they take a little piece of you with them that can never be replaced. They go for a walk and Geli tells Nico how people had accused her and Adele of being lovers because they were so close. Her brother had taken her away and she never saw Adele again because she died in childbirth. As he feels bereaved because he'll never see Violetta again, Nico says he understands and is pleased that he is the only person Gela has ever told about Adele.

He keeps finding Frank asleep on his bed in the morning and no longer thinks he's a stupid dog. Rosa calls with the x-ray and they break into Mrs Halfdead's rooms. They play with her Zimmer frame and wrap themselves in the billowing curtains until they hear a hacking cough and see Mrs Halfdead make her way to the kitchen using a wooden chair for support and they realise this was the noise they had taken for spirits scraping. They play tick among the sheets drying on the roof until they hear someone calling because Frank has died. Nico runs down to console Gela, but she doesn't even notice him, as she walks past with her beloved pet wrapped in a blanket.

Nico cooks one of the dishes that Gela had taught him and lays the table for a surprise supper. But she refuses to leave her bed and the other grandmas explain that she will need a grief cookie when she stops feeling so sad. He leaves a tray beside her bed, but Gela is too distraught to notice. Returning to his room, Nico lies on the bed and smiles quietly to himself when he hears the chair scraping the floor in the apartment above.

The next day, Nico does the ironing and attempts to sweep the floor. He brings Gela a fresh handkerchief, only for his phone to ring. It's Violetta calling to say she misses him and confirm that they probably won't meet again after she marries. Trying to be brave, Nico opens the door to find Rosa with a meal cooked by her grandma. She hugs him and says it must be hard coping with the memories of Violetta while Gela is mourning Frank. He leans into her and promises to join the others when he feels better.

Feeling part of the gang for the first time, Nico joins in the game of football. But he catches Rosa's eye when Gela comes on to the balcony and calls down that Violetta is on the phone for him. He races after her, as she runs away feeling foolish for believing his lie. He bangs on her door, but Masuccia tells him off and he comes home to throw the contents of a jar over the floor in frustration. Still locked in her room, Gela asks him to tell her a joke and she comes out to help him clear up.

Ready to face the world again, Gela takes Nico to the beach. The grandmas and the kids greet them both, but Rosa turns her nose up at him. He sits with his great-aunt and watches the others play. Eventually, Masuccia turfs him out of his deckchair and makes him sit on the sand. She calls Rosa over and talks Nico through a proper apology. After making him suffer, Rosa accepts and they scamper off to play hide and seek. As they're crouching down behind a parked car, Nico gives Rosa a little peck on the mouth and she smiles as he runs off to touch base before he's caught. She runs after him and, as `The Blue Danube' starts up on the soundtrack, they run into the sea and start splashing, as Nico turns to check that Gela is okay nattering with her friends.

Although Margherita Spampinato based her screenplay partly on her memories of Sicilian holidays with her two maiden aunts and partly on the things she had overheard her young son discussing with his friends, this marvellous first feature also contains echoes of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, Carla Simón's Summer 1993 (2007), and Gianni Di Gregorio's Mid-August Lunch (2008). The blend works like a charm, as Nico comes to reconcile his secular preoccupations with Gela's faith and realise that they have more in common than he had first imagined.

Using her casting nous, Spampinato knew instinctively that Marco Fiore was right for the sulkily self-pitying tweenager plunged into a milieu that makes no sense because his cosseted background and reliance on his phone have robbed him of the sense of curiosity that his great-aunt revives with her no-nonsense conviction in her own way of doing things and her recognition that Nico is as fragile as his father had been when she had raised him. Relishing a role written with her in mind, Aurora Quattrocchi excels as the soft-hearted martinent with a secret agony of her own and she thoroughly deserved her Golden Leopard for the Best Performance at the Locarno Film Festival.

Martina Ziami, Clara Salvo, and King the dog all make vital contributions, as do production designer Marinora Ferrandes, composer Alice Zecchinelli, and cinematographer Claudio Cofrancesco, who just happens to be married to the director and the veteran of over 150 films, and whose handheld imagery lends the action an affecting intimacy and immediacy. Spampinato also wrote and edited the film, which wisely doesn't delve too deeply into the themes raised, as an adolescent boy wouldn't overthink them, even while trying to make sense of them. The odd scene comes right out of the rite-of-passage playbook, but Spampinato roots everything so convincingly in an atmosphere she knows well that it's impossible to resist the odd contrivance, let along begrudge it. Moreover, she eschews condescension and sentimentality in showing how Nico finds a way to mend his broken heart, while also gaining an invaluable insight into the mysteries of the grown-up world.