Movie Review: La Pivelinna (2009) Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel

The Austrian-Italian buddies Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel take an elegant and almost imperceptible step from documentary to fiction in their first feature 'La Pivellina'. A small two-year-old girl is abandoned in a park in Rome's suburb San Basilio, where she is found by Patty, a circus matriarch with fiery red hair. Patty takes her home to the small circus family, and with the help of her husband Walter and the teenager Tairo from the neighbouring caravan, she sets out to find the girl's mother, who, according to a piece of paper in the girl's pocket, will come back and fetch her soon. But 'La Pivellina' focuses more on the life in the small, isolated and excluded circus community than on the hunt for the girl's parents. With their documentary approach, naturalistic techniques and total absence of accompanying music, Covi and Frimmel manage to create a captivating and moving image of the real circus family (which the duo have previously visited in the documentary 'Babooshka') without becoming sentimental. There is a bit of Dardenne brothers in Fellini-land about 'La Pivellina', which is an enthralling look at an unknown community filled with courage and desperation, loneliness and solidarity.

This video was posted to Cphpix Copenhagen Film Festival's official website at: http://cphpix.dk/n/a2.lasso?tt=f&s=20...

La Pivellina
Austria, 2009, 101 min.
English subtitles

Director:
Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
Script:
Tizza Covi
Camera:
Rainer Frimmel
Editor:
Tizza Covi
Cast:
Patrizia Gerardi, Asia Crippa, Tairo Caroli
Producer:
Rainer Frimmel
Production:
Vento Film
Distr.:
Films Distribution, 1076