Review: 'A Chiara' is a raw and vital coming-of-age story, of a teen girl in Calabria discovering the dark truth about her father

It’s true that the best movies are very specific to the details of their place and their characters — and that’s particularly true of Italian writer-director Jonas Carpignano’s coming-of-age drama “A Chiara.”

The place is Giola Tauro, a seaside town in Calabria, the region that forms the “toe” of Italy’s “boot.” It’s here where 15-year-old Chiara (Swamy Rotolo) lives with her family — who are played by Rotolo’s real family: Claudio (Claudio Rotolo), her father; Carmela (Carmela Fumo), her mother; her little sister, Giorgia (Giorgia Rotolo); and her 18-year-old sister Giulia (Grecia Rotolo).

The movie starts with the preparations for Giulia’s 18th birthday, a big party with all of their family and friends in attendance. This includes a lot of Claudio’s male relations, who huddle together somewhat menacingly.

As the party breaks up, something startling happens: Claudio’s car explodes. No one is in the car, but Claudio goes off with some of his male relations. And Chiara doesn’t see him again for a long time.

Chiara, being 15 and considering herself invincible, starts asking questions about her father’s disappearance, and whether Dad is involved in the Calabrian mafia — which, the movie shows us, is so tight-knit it makes the Sicilian mafia of “The Godfather” look like a group of random strangers.

Everyone around Chiara — Mom, Giulia, her cousin Giusi (Giuseppina Rotolo) — tells her to stop asking questions. Eventually, her uncle Antonio (Antonio Rotolo Uno) gives her some information, but it’s hardly comforting.

In the mean time, Chiara starts skipping school and acting rashly — so much so that the school and the authorities want to take her from her family and live with a foster family in the north, under an Italian law designed to give teens a chance break free from Mafia ties.

“A Chiara” is the third movie Carpignano has made set in Calabria, but it stands alone as an engrossing story of a young woman having to grow up in a big hurry. That said, I want to find and watch “Mediterranea,” his 2015 movie about African migrants making the trek to Italy, and his 2017 follow-up “A Ciambra,” which centers on Calabria’s Roma community — both of which center on characters that we see on the fringes of “A Chiara.”

Carpignano’s pacing is a slow-burn at first; we spend an awfully long time at Giulia’s birthday party. But once the movie revs up, the story really takes off — mostly on the strength of Swamy Rotolo’s intense performance as Chiara, her long thoughtful stares showing a mind piecing together what she must do to survive and sever her family’s criminal ties. “A Chiara” is a gut-punch of a movie, one that holds your attention from the start and doesn’t let go.

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‘A Chiara’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, June 10, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for some language and drug content. Running time: 121 minutes; in Italian, with subtitles.