The Wonders | A dreamlike coming-of-age amid an idealistic family of beekeepers in Tuscany

The Wonders Maria Alexandra Lungu Alba Rohrwacher

e MERAVIGLIE The Wonders Maria Alexandra Lungu

Winner of a major award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Italian director Alice Rohrwacher’s gently paced but utterly enthralling coming-of-age drama The Wonders (Le meraviglie) more than lives up to its title. The film revolves around an adolescent girl (Maria Alexandra Lungu) from a stubbornly independent, hippyish family of beekeepers living in the backwaters of Tuscany and explores her gradual awakening to the possibilities presented by the wider world.

The Wonders Maria Alexandra Lungu Alba Rohrwacher

Meanwhile, her level-headed mother (played by the director’s sister, Alba Rohrwacher) is becoming more and more exasperated by the failings of her obstinate, idealistic husband (Sam Louwyck)…

The Wonders Monica Bellucci

The film’s overall mood is highly naturalistic but there is an almost surreal strangeness to some of its scenes, as when the heroine lets bees crawl out of her mouth during the dreamlike staging of a cheesy reality TV show hosted by the glamorous Milly Catena - an entertaining cameo from Monica Bellucci - into which the family gets drawn.

Certificate 15. Runtime 111 mins. Director Alice Rohrwacher

The Wonders debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere today and is available on DVD from Soda Pictures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEOS5iy0Y4M

Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.