Celeste Cescutti, Ondina Quadri
A young woman embarks on a mythic odyssey to save her daughter’s soul in writer-director Laura Samani’s captivating feature debut.
Northeastern Italy, 1900: Agata (Celeste Cescutti) gives birth, but the baby is stillborn. The priest of her seaside village – in which Catholicism, mysticism and superstition form a heady local brew – tells the grief-stricken Agata that her baby cannot be named, and is thus condemned to an eternity in Limbo. Setting out on a perilous journey, Agata travels to a remote mountain sanctuary where she believes a miracle may occur, en route teaming up with Lynx (Ondina Quadri), a wild, solitary boy who may or may not be able to help her.
Inspired by reports of miracles performed at a Catholic sanctuary in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Samani has crafted a beguiling small-scale epic that sees her resourceful heroine cross mountains and sea, boasting fierce, immersive performances and beautiful cinematography. A spellbinding and strikingly original work that spans the material and the spiritual, Small Body was selected for Cannes Critic’s Week, Toronto and the BFI London Film Festival in 2021 and positions Samani as a bold and ambitious new voice in independent film.
