Mia

Fifteen-year-old Mia gets on well with her family and paints. She starts seeing an older boy. The relationship quickly becomes a mechanism of control: checking her phone, cutting her off from friends, constant jealousy. By the time the family notices, it has gone a long way. Ivano De Matteo directed. Edoardo Leo plays the father, Greta Gasbarri plays Mia. The subject is the period before violence: how the relationship is built before anything physical happens, and why the girl does not see it, are shown in detail. The narrative shifts to the father in the second half and becomes contested there, moving from the girl's experience to the family's response. It opened in Italy while the argument over the killing of women was running high, and special screenings were held in schools. The telling is plain and the dramatic underlining low. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian drama about what happens inside families. Who it is not for: anyone unable to carry the weight of the subject; the film offers no comforting ending.