Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Alissa Jung
Starring: Juli Grabenhenrich, Luca Marinelli, Arturo Gabbriellini, Joy Falletti Cardillo, Gaia Rinaldi
German actress Alissa Jung makes her feature debut as writer/director with this tender tale of familial reconnection. It's a coming of age narrative, but not in the way you might expect. Its protagonists are a 15-year-old girl and her long absent 36-year-old father, but it's the latter who will come of age and finally face the maturity he's spent his life running from.
15 years ago Leo (Juli Grabenhenrich) was born, the result of a summer fling between her mother and an Italian, Paolo (Luca Marinelli, husband of the director), who didn't stick around to become a father. With some internet sleuthing Leo has tracked Paolo down to a small village on the northern coast of Italy where he runs a surfing school in the summer. Taking a train, Leo travels to off season Italy to confront her father.
Leo's plan is decidedly German. She sits Paolo down and asks him a series of pre-written questions, as though she were interviewing him for a job at a fast food restaurant. The Italian Paolo is having none of this approach. He argues that the only way to get to know someone is to spend time in their company, and so Leo decides to stick around for a few days.
This places Paolo in an awkward position. He's trying to be a good father to his other daughter, a toddler he fathered with a local woman in circumstances probably not entirely unlike those that resulted in him producing Leo all those years ago. As Leo watches her father interact with his other daughter we can see the hurt she feels that he wasn't around when she was that age. To his credit Paolo does his best to bond with Leo, teaching her to surf and taking her camping, but both father and daughter possess a shared temper that throws a spanner in the works of their reunion.
Jung's debut doesn't pull up any trees in terms of originality. We've seen this sort of narrative several times before, but her film is beautifully observed and boasts two outstanding central performances. Marinelli is thoroughly convincing as a man trying to remain a boy while the young debutante Grabenhenrich is a revelation as a girl who thinks she's a woman. Leo and Paolo spar verbally and rage and fume at one another, but in their tenderest moments we see how much both of them are taking from this impromptu reunion. They communicate in English but they stubbornly speak their true feelings in their own languages so as not to let their guard down. We come to realise just how much Leo is like her father, and we want them to remain a family long after the credits have rolled. Marinelli and Grabenhenrich are so in sync that we never doubt they share the same blood.
Paternal Leave screens at the Raindance Film Festival on June 24th and 25th.
