Avis des critiques

This insidiously unsettling, genuinely haunting film captures the latent evil within a sun-kissed Sicilian town and the natural and supernatural shocks and wonders that permeate the deep forest beyond. It is by far the best trip the recent cinema has taken “into the woods.”

A divine blend of natural and supernatural, fantasy and actuality, “Sicilian Ghost Story” reflects the horrors of a Mafia kidnapping through the prism of first love.

Grassadonia and Piazza make effectively sparing use of visceral realism to underline the vicious brutality of the mob. But the movie runs the full register of emotion under extremity through a lyricism whose landscape — gnarly trees, dripping caves, nocturnal torches flashing out messages of resistance backed by plaintive ambient noise and a mournful soundtrack — evokes the traumatized spirits of those who haunt it.

With soft-focus imagery veering towards abstraction and subtly elliptical editing, the film takes on the texture and logic of a dream, lulling us into following Luna into a waking nightmare. As such, it’s hard to be sure whether what we’re seeing is truth or fancy, or whether the protagonists are alive or dead.

Careful camera movement, distorting wide-angle lenses, and a hyperfocused sound design all contribute to the mysterious atmosphere, and Julia Jedlikowska gives a heartbreaking performance as the girl, who suffers the bittersweet ache of young love.