The Interval

Most days young Salvatore mans a street cart selling granita. But today he is obliged to watch a teenager named Veronica while a local Camorra boss contemplates her punishment: she’s been running with a guy from a rival organization. Salvatore and Veronica spend the day together in a dilapidated industrial complex inside the city limits. Mutual disregard and a certain ill will on the girl’s part soon ebb away and the couple begin to reveal what they hold inside. The original impression of immature adolescence is gradually erased as they reveal themselves as mature and mutually empathetic individuals capable of understanding complex situations. The gradual discovery of intimacy, however, is weighed down by fears about the verdict concerning Veronica’s relationship – for which she might have to pay, according to mafia custom, the ultimate price. The director’s debut feature betrays his documentary roots in a deftly constructed psychological study of two characters brought together by oppressive circumstances. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)