The Pupils, which earned writer-director Alice Rohrwacher and producer Alfonso Cuarón an Oscar nomination, is a Christmas movie classic-to-be sure to retain its appeal even under the midsummer sun. Set during the wartime of the 1940s, the story is “freely and clumsily” based on — and contains excerpts from — a letter sent to a friend by Roman author Elsa Morante, who also acted in Pasolini’s Accattone.
Alice’s actress sister, Alba Rohrwacher, plays an abbess striving to raise good Catholics out of seventeen little girls at a boarding school. The outcast Serafina is especially singled out. When a rare delicacy, the irresistible “zuppa inglese,” is donated to the Christmas charity drive, piety is put to the test, and it is time to see who practices what they preach.
The timeless and engrossing cinematic fable deals with the many dimensions of human nature, from hypocrisy to rebellion, with the human and slightly mischievous touch familiar from Rohrwacher’s feature-length films. The music is provided by Finland’s very own Cleaning Women, whom Rohrwacher — naturally! — discovered while attending the Midnight Sun Film Festival ten years ago.
Short film De Djess will be screened before The Pupils
Suvi Heino