Displaying items by tag: Federico Bondi

DAFNE

Italy, 2019, 93 minutes, Colour.

Carolina Raspanti, Antonio Piovanelli, Angela Magni.

Directed by Federico Bondi.

Dafne is a small Italian feature film, dedicated to his mother by the director. The title character is a young woman, Down Syndrome, living in the Italian town, with her mother and father, very lively in her manner, not many filters when expressing her opinions, enjoying life.

Then her mother dies suddenly, it has an effect on her, and draws her mother closely to her father. Her father is an older man, often tired, unwell. Dafne and her father have a good relationship even though there is often some sparring.

The action in the later part of the film is Dafne’s decision to visit the tomb of her mother, travelling there on foot, forcing her father to go out, walk and exercise. They encounter relations, torque and bond, visit the tomb, get a lift from sympathetic guards – and the film ends with the closeness of Dafne with her father.

This link indicates 25 films with Down Syndrome characters. https://www.imdb.com/list/ls062258431/

1. The title, Dafne and her story, family, relationship to mother, the mother’s death, her father, age and illness, her life, her job, her friends, Down Syndrome?
2. The setting, the town, the home, the streets and shops, the countryside, the cemetery? The musical score?
3. Audience response to Dafne as a person, empathy with her Down Syndrome?
4. Dafne as a character, her age, straightforward in speech, very few filters? The scenes with her mother, the suddenness of her mother’s death, grief, with her father, the funeral?
5. Dafne with her father, his age, in the house, tired, the to and fro of conversation?
6. Dafne and her friends, at the dance, exuberant dancing, her remarks, her friendship with Viola? Discussions with the boy about the stars? The work at the shop? Her bluntness, comments?
7. Interactions with her father, up and down, his smoking, phoning for the doctor’s appointment, tired, his memories of his wife and the stories, the decision about the place of burial?
8. Dafne wanting to go to her mother’s grave, that they should walk, to get her father out, walking, exercise? The travel, with the aunt and uncle, the car? Her buying the doll, throwing it out the window? The walk, sitting at the grave? The shelter, the rain? The encounter with the guards, friendship, their offering a lift, the happy travelling?
9. Dafne and her father, the bonding, and the film ending?