A daughter quite literally doesn’t seem to be in the cards when Jasmine (Marilena Amato) visits a tarot reader in “Vittoria,” the kind of belief in the supernatural that you might not expect from someone so obviously hardened by reality. An obviously scrappy woman who you can imagine withstood various slings and arrows as part of building a successful hair salon while raising three kids with her husband Rino (Gennaro Scarica), who’s had his hands just as full with a carpentry business to keep a roof over their heads, Jasmine still melts a bit when she’s told that it doesn’t look like there will be any more kids in her future, conflicting with what her heart is telling her after her father confided in her that she’d eventually have a girl before he passed away of cancer.
For those who saw Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman’s narrative debut “Californie,” about a headstrong teen finding her bearings in Italy after migrating from Morocco, you’ll know once an idea gets in someone’s head, it’s hard to shake no matter how much the world seems against them and the two have made another compelling tale of self-determination, able to acknowledge the weakness that can result from being so single-minded amidst the strength required to persevere. “Californie” stood out because the directing duo that previously worked in documentary took four years to follow their teenage lead, providing the film with the electrical current of watching its star Khadija Jaafari really grow up before your eyes, but on a likely tighter shooting schedule, “Vittoria” has just as engaging a lead in Amato, playing a character that undergoes an experience nearly as transformative as Jasmine aims to fulfill her father’s dying wish.
From the credits filled with Scaricas and Amatos, one is aware that Cassigoli and Kauffman convened a true family affair, which according to the press notes was a bigger ask than trying their hand at acting when they had no such experience, but apparently did really know their roles when the film was based on their own pursuit of an adoption. Having those emotional details taken care of have seemed to allow Cassigoli and Kauffman to waste less time on unnecessary exposition with both narrative features clocking in at 80 minutes or less, and the two clearly have a way with nonprofessionals that reminds of the Dardenne brothers, capturing their conviction in tightly constructed narratives that feel like a real slice of life.
In what could seem like a particularly thin sliver at first, simply tracking Jasmine as she goes through the frustrating process of convincing one party after another that she take in another child, from her skeptical husband who is content with the life they have to social workers who have to come vet the family for suitability, “Vittoria” takes on more dimension with each passing question of her desire. Feisty enough to assert herself to get what she wants in using an extended family dinner to declare she’ll have a new daughter before Rino has agreed and forging her mother-in-law’s signature to comply with an obscure Italian law to start the adoption process, Jasmine is increasingly made aware of the things she has to accept she has no control over when it seems her father’s specific premonition that she’d have a daughter will be more complicated to accomplish than imagined when prospective parents aren’t allowed to know what gender the child will be or what kind of health they’ll be in and even as support grows amongst her family, she’s caught off-guard when she hears of her younger son Luca’s concern that she’ll spend more time with another kid at his expense.
Although the others around Jasmine aren’t given anywhere near as much personality, you always feel everyone is part of a greater world with their own concerns and ambitions and the film is always on the move, with each experience she has leaving a strong impression on her. The same could be said for “Vittoria” as a whole, which lands its ending in particularly moving fashion when Jasmine and Rino are expected to show any new addition to their family unconditional love, but what can’t be anticipated is how they show it to one another through such a trying process.
“Vittoria” will screen again at the Venice Film Festival on August 31st at 9 am at the Sala Giardino.