Drought Review: the new film by Paolo Virzì

Hi all friends of Movieblog and welcome to a new article from your favorite online site. Today we are here to tell you about the latest film by Paolo Virzì, Droughtdistributed in all Italian cinemas from 29 September.

Drought texture

Droughtreleased in all Italian cinemas from 29 September, is the last cinematic work conceived by the master Paolo Virzì now a cornerstone of our cinema. The plot is simple: Rome is in great difficulty, it hasn’t rained in the capital for three years and the lack of water distorts the habits and social rules of the inhabitants. This lack of water and the consequent thirst in the population causes fears and confusion within the community and alters the various minds that struggle with each other in search of a few drops of drinking water. Inside the city there are a group of characters of different ages and social status, some are victims, others are jackals. All of them are looking for salvation, for some form of redemption but they are unaware that their lives are tied to each other by an invisible, raw and dramatic thread, which shows us how fate and destiny are sadistic at times.

Drought: a quality cast

For this ensemble film Virzì choose a cast of the highest level. In fact, we can see quite well-known names on the national scene such as Monica Bellucci, Silvio Orlando, Claudia Pandolfi, Tommaso spider e Valerio Mastrandrea; however, there is no shortage of actors of the new generation such as Emanuela Fanelli, Gabriel Montesi e Sara Lazzaro. Virzì manages to master everything, managing to enhance the role of each actor and making each character become a fundamental and essential piece for the continuous harmonious and coherent plot. Above all, however, for me, it stands out Valerio Mastrandrea which manages to restore the discomfort of a part of the forgotten population, abandoned by the institutions that try to save their ruling elite by letting the poorest and most defenseless citizens die and abandoned to themselves, unable to react economically and socially to such a catastrophe.

Drought and Covid

Virzì describes a scenario, yes, imaginary but, not far from what we have experienced in these years of pandemic in which we felt more alone, sadder, incapable and incredulous in the face of what we were experiencing. The plot has become a metaphor but also a parallelism with the past and current pandemic situation, it shows us the conflicts, alliances, problems that each of us has and had with those around him, with the community that surrounds him and consequently, therefore, a story, which a few years ago might have seemed absurd, now leaves us with that bitter taste and that sickening feeling of Déja vu.

Personal opinion

The film, however much it tries (through an imaginary story) to play on a current, modern and still “hot” theme for all of us and underlines a social criticism of the institutions (by making a socio-political analysis of our country), it is too slow in rhythm , also thanks to an overly intertwined plot which, despite the top-level actors, is now boring and redundant after the second act. In fact, for an average attentive spectator, the plot is easily desirable and can be resolved already in the middle of the viewing and consequently this makes the last part of the film only a wait for the credits in order to leave the room. However, I recommend viewing as the film has a quality technical sector, with a dark, granite photography, a utopian but truthful scenography and finally a sector of actors in great shape who manage to produce performances of the highest level.