A CHIARA Trailer: Jonas Carpignano Completes His Gripping Calabria Trilogy

One of the most exciting, impactful filmmakers of the last decade is Jonas Carpignano. The Italian-American filmmaker is known for his features that detail gritty life in Italy. He explored the refugee crisis in his fantastic debut Mediterranea, and told a gripping tale of a teenage boy growing up in an unforgiving world in A Ciambra. HtN’s editor-at-large Matt Delman spoke with Carpignano back at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival where he screened A Ciambra. Now, his newest feature A Chiara concludes his Calabria Trilogy as he puts us in the shoes of a teenage girl who discovers a painful truth about her father. Neon picked up the film after its premiere at Cannes last year and will release it, with the support of Cinema Made In Italy, on May 27.

The film centers on 15-year-old Chiara (newcomer Swamy Rotolo) as she and her well-off family celebrate her sister’s eighteenth birthday. After a car explodes on the family’s street that night, Chiara spots her father (Claudio Rotolo) fleeing the scene. When she starts noticing things around her being out of the ordinary, which include her father’s abrupt disappearance, she starts investigating her own family and comes to a shocking conclusion about what they might be involved in.

A Chiara was recently nominated for Best Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards, along with Tim Curtin’s cinematography and Affonso Gonçalves’ film editing. It was also nominated for six David di Donatello Awards (Italy’s own Oscars) including Best Actress for Swamy Rotolo and Best Original Screenplay for Carpignano.

Check out the trailer below:

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