SOPHIA

The teenager Sophia, hurt by a romantic relationship that is ending, decides to take refuge in reading. Going to the library to gather materials for a school assignment, the girl finds a book on the popular legends of Ticino and becomes captivated. As she continues reading, her schoolmates begin to die under mysterious circumstances, starting with her ex-boyfriend, and it seems that the frequent deaths are somehow connected to the legends collected in that text. Sophia is a common personal name, but also the Greek term used to indicate wisdom, knowledge, appropriately anthropomorphized by Hellenic mythology into the figure of a goddess linked precisely to the concept of knowledge. It is easy, therefore, to notice the parallel that the young Pugliese director Stefano Simone draws between the elements of his film and the classical tradition, linking the name of his protagonist with her function in the story: acquiring knowledge. But Simone seems to want to tell us that wisdom is the most powerful of weapons, extremizing and modifying the saying according to which the word hurts more than the sword. And indeed, the very young Sophia acquires a "power," that of using reading and "literature" at her pleasure as an agent of death to settle her scores. If at first the girl's ability manifests itself unconsciously and strikes precisely who has hurt her (the boy who betrayed her), then a latent meanness emerges in Sophia that unleashes her sadistic side, amplified by the ending that suggests a realization of the power and an expansion of her deadly action. The strong point of "Sophia," a "short" by Stefano Simone after the feature films "Una vita nel mistero," "UnFacebook," and just before "Weekend tra amici," lies precisely in the subject and the way it is developed by the screenplay of Teresa La Scala. If on the one hand there is some naivety in the dialogues, especially those intended to inform viewers of the events, on the other hand one cannot but appreciate the way in which the times and narrative elements have been managed, thus giving the short film a sense of completeness and at the same time narrative breadth that is rarely found in works that want to tell a fairly complex story in a few minutes. If the music by Luca Auriemma is undoubtedly spot on, the photography by Antonio Universi does not convince, the contrasts are too accentuated, with dark scenes too dark and "burned" whites that sometimes almost disturb the view. The same photography, combined with a makeup job that perhaps was not done, tends to highlight the clarity of the skin and the imperfections of the faces (like acne!) of the protagonists, creating a strange not very pleasant effect. The cast is almost entirely made up of very young people, with the protagonist Barbara Vescovi who does very well and the supporting actors who often show their inexperience. "Sophia" was shot in the Canton of Ticino, particularly in Acquarossa, with the collaboration of the local middle school, and in the Valle di Blenio. Indeed, Simone wants to highlight the beautiful territory with frequent panoramas of the mountains and valleys bathed by the Brenno river, which give the narrated story a particular and original charm. Vote rounded up.