Rating: NR | Runtime: 119 minutes
Release Date: September 19th, 2024 (Italy) / December 25th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Lucky Red / Janus Films / Sideshow
Director(s): Maura Delpero
Writer(s): Maura Delpero

Maybe he’s a romantic anyway.

Life in a remote country village at the end of WWII? It’s a nightmare of little money, little food, and little education. And while the lack of those things are tough for the uneducated, there’s something to the idea of ignorance being bliss. Because Cesare (Tommaso Ragno) has had a taste of “cultured” living. He thinks himself superior and infallible as a result. Life with eight children proves otherwise.

I really enjoyed the first half of Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio as she lets joy and promise breathe life into this place and its people. It brings a young Sicilian deserter (Giuseppe De Domenico’s Pietro) back to life thanks to the love of Cesare’s eldest daughter Lucia (Martina Scrinzi). We get a story about making due, embracing the small things, and instilling a sense of shared humanity within a community otherwise walled off from the rest of the world.

The second half, however, loses that optimism—with reason. It brings everyone back down to earth to accept the hard truths of reality before ultimately reintroducing the fractured nature of an insular place that hope had healed. Men pass the buck. Women struggle to survive. Everyone suddenly knows what’s “best” despite having agreed with the opposite a day prior.

I like what Delpero brings with her script and direction—this is a very well-made piece. But the deliberate pacing and quiet atmosphere has nowhere to hide once the drama amps up to reveal the battles we all wage within ourselves. In the end, that gentleman at the beginning had it correct: the world needs more cowards because wars can’t start if no one is willing to fight them.

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Martina Scrinzi and Giuseppe De Domenico in VERMIGLIO; courtesy of Janus Films.