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Sideshow and Janus Films have scooped up North American rights to Maura Delpero's acclaimed Italian period drama Vermiglio, winner of the Venice Film Festival's silver lion grand jury prize.
The film debuted in competition in Venice and received its North American premiere Tuesday night at the Toronto Film Festival. Sideshow and Janus say they will release the title in North American theaters in the coming months.
Vermiglio is a follow-up to Delpero's well-received 2019 directorial debut Maternal. She wrote, directed and produced the new feature, which is loosely based on her own family history.
"We were deeply moved and impressed by Vermiglio, a new Italian classic that is intimate in scale but epic in scope, unfolding like a memory over four ravishingly shot seasons during the Second World War," said Sideshow and Janus Films.
The Italian-language movie is named after the small village where it is set, high in the Alps in 1944. As Vermiglio begins, the arrival of Pietro, a refugee soldier, disrupts the dynamics of a local teacher's family. During the four seasons marking the end of World War II, Pietro and Lucia, the eldest daughter of the teacher, are instantly drawn to each other, leading to marriage and an unexpected fate. As the world emerges from its tragedy, the family faces its own.
"[T]he portrait of a nearly vanished rural way of life remains compelling," The Hollywood Reporter's critic wrote in a review from Venice, later adding, "As Delpero demonstrated with her last well-regarded drama Maternal, she has a knack with actors, especially young and non-professional performers."
The review also praised the film's cinematography for the way it "evokes a sense of the sublime in the sweeping vistas, blinding snowscapes and secretive forests" of the Italian Alps.
Vermiglio is co-produced by Carole Baraton, Pauline Boucheny Pinon, Jacques-Henry Bronckart, and Tatiana Kozar. It is a co-production between Cinedora with RAI Cinema and co-produced by Charades Production and Versus Production, with the participation of Anonymous Content.
The North American distribution deal was negotiated by Sideshow and Janus Films with Anonymous Content's Nick Shumaker and Charades' Carole Baraton, on behalf of the filmmakers.