Sicilian director Salvatore Mereu’s remarkable second feature, follows, in measured scenes of great formal beauty. It’s an uncompromising film that refuses to meet its audience halfway – but one that repays patient viewers with a story so raw, harsh and direct that it doesn’t seem mediated through script, camera or acting school. One of the many little miracles about Sonetaula is the intense performance of non-professional Francesco Falchetto in the title role.
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The promise Salvatore Mereu showed in his debut, “Three-Step Dance,” comes to stunning fruition with his elegiac follow-up, “Sonetaula.” Film’s style offers a much-needed reminder of why Italian cinema was so influential to generations of directors.
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Mereu’s measured visuals both capture and flow with the story, celebrating Sardinia’s rocky landscape and the people living in its midst. Just as he did in “Three-Step Dance,” helmer uses multiple lensers, brilliantly editing them all together into an organic mixture utilizing the stone and pale-green colors of the island itself.
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