Director: Michael Winterbottom
Operator: Marcel Zyskind
Writer: Laurence Coriat and Michael Winterbottom
Producer: Andrew Eaton
Roles: Colin Firth (Joe), Catherine Keener
(Barbara), Willa Holland (Kelly), Perla Haney
Jardine (Mary), Hope Davis (Marianne)
Joe is an Englishman raising his family in the United States.
One day as his wife is driving their daughters home, she
becomes momentarily distracted. Disaster strikes. Left in a
fog of grief, Joe decides to accept a position teaching in
Italy. He hopes the change of setting will help to pull both
him and his daughters from the limbo of their bereavement.
Kelly is sullen at home. In Europe, however, she is suddenly
awakened to new possibilities, and strikes up a secret
romance with an Italian boy. Her younger sister Mary feels
the death of their mother most acutely. Joe navigates
the new demands of an old friendship with a university
colleague Barbara. Meanwhile, the family is surrounded by
Genova's gorgeous jumble of medieval, Renaissance and
contemporary influences.
Genova is a mood piece, an exploration of what agonizing
loss can provoke in a family. This is a beautiful, slow burn of a
film, made with insight, passion and grace.
Cameron Bailey