ITALY – 2009 – 83 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY SUSANNA NICCHIARELLI
“I’m a Communist!” declares Luciana at age 9.
It’s now 1963 and 15 year old Luciana has been obsessed with Russian space missions since she was a little girl, a passion passed on by her older, oddball brother Arturo. She is now a committed member of the local Italian Federation of Young Communists and is nursing a hopeless crush on the handsome leader of the group, also her friend’s boyfriend. Susanna Nicchiarelli’s first feature follows feisty Luciana trying to get the boys in her group to take her ideas seriously as she suffers through the initial blast off and return to Earth of first love.
(4 Stars!) "I’d never heard Susanna Nicchiarelli’s name before I got the screener of COSMONAUT, and now I can’t wait to see what she does next."
- NOW MAGAZINE
"...buoyed by a smartly curated soundtrack featuring cover versions of vintage Italian pop songs — perfect for a film that seeks a contemporary perspective on the past."
- EYE WEEKLY
"...slight, charming, thoughtful movie; one that can be recommended to fallen idealists of every persuasion."
- THE GLOBE AND MAIL
"Watching COSMONAUT, I was reminded of the charming 2002 film Valentin by Argentine director Alejandro Agresti. (He later made The Lake House; forgive him.) It’s about an eight-year-old boy in 1960s Buenos Aires who longs to be an astronaut."
- THE NATIONAL POST
"Here’s something you don’t see every day: A quirky feminist comedy about teenage Italian communists obsessed with the space race in the early 60s."
- METRO