Watchlist This! Our December 2024 picks of the best new bubbling-under films
Vermiglio
Directed and written by Maura Delpero.
In select US theaters December 25.
Janus Films and Sideshow Films
On first blush, the titular quaint mountainside Italian town in Vermiglio is untouched by the outside world. There is a second World War raging, but as one character says, German soldiers haven’t been around lately. There are two Italian servicemen, however, who are hiding out in a disused shed. One is a native son of the town; the other, a dashing yet quiet Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), hails from Sicily. Of the two deserters, it’s the latter who catches the adoring eye of Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), the eldest daughter of the town’s learned but regressive and repressive teacher Cesare (Tommaso Ragno).