To Chiara

The Guerrasio family and friends gather to celebrate Claudio and Carmela’s oldest daughter’s 18th birthday. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 15-year-old sister Chiara as they compete on the dancefloor. It is a happy occasion, and the close-knit family are on top form. However, everything changes the next day when the father disappears. Chiara, unconvinced by the cover story, starts to investigate. As she gets closer to the truth, she is forced to decide what kind of future she wants for herself.

"Chiara" (Swamy Rotolo) is a typical fifteen year old girl living with her mum, dad and two sisters who finds herself distraught when he just ups and leaves them. Determined to ascertain just what happened to him, she now embarks on a series of what might be described as adventures all against a backdrop of clues provided to us of exploding cars, a terrified mother (Carmela Fumo) and a message declaring that her father (Claudio Rotolo) has died. Of course, all of this stress is playing havoc with her behaviour but despite some benign attempts at intervention from the school, she will not be dissuaded from her quest - even if that puts her at odds with just about everyone in her life. I might have got more from this had I taken to "Chiara" in any way, but I didn't and so found the story quickly became quite an uninteresting mystery of teenage angst set against one that contrived to include racial tensions and strained familial drama, all filmed as if we were a companion travelling with her as she ponderously seeks her answers. It does pick up a little towards the conclusion, but for me too much of this focusses on developing "Chiara" as a woman and though Rotolo is proficient, she never quite got me hooked one way or the other with her personification of this teenage girl with whom I just didn't engage. Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood, but this didn't do much for me, sorry.