'Idda' Review
Release Date: --/--/-- [Festival Run]
Genre: Drama.
MPAA: Not Rated.
Distributor: Rai Cinema International Distribution.
The Verdict: A Maybe
It is the traditional Festival of St. Agatha. On and off friends Sofia and Adele reunite and join the festivities before continuing with their plan: climbing Mt. Etna and reaching the summit. What happens later in Idda, director Irene Dionisio’s love letter to her friend who passed away before becoming a mother, is a meditation on female friendships, how intense and toxic they can be, but also how loving and nurturing.
Our two protagonists, Adele and Sofia, meet at a fleeting moment in their adult friendship. They’re both carrying skeletons in the closets of their shared past, but as one gets older, opening up becomes increasingly difficult.
The film would be nothing without Dionisio’s personal journey behind it, but also Tecla Insolia’s and Romana Maggiora Vergano’s performances take it to another level. As Adele and Sofia, respectively, they portray a fragile bond between yearning and heartache. Kudos to the director for showcasing how complex and multilayered female friendships can be, but without their performances, the film would lose most of its weight and magic.
There’s something about volcanoes and women’s desires this year. It started with Pete Ohs’s Erupcja, and in this feature, it takes a whole different turn. Volcanoes are scary, treacherous, and unstoppable. A force of nature confined to one place, yet capable of damage beyond imagination. Does it resemble what these two women have for each other? A love that is pressured into bitterness and competitiveness. A wound that drives them into alienation, at the cost of sitting down and confronting the past?
Unsurprisingly, out in nature roles are reversed. The more outgoing Sofia becomes, the more scared and withdrawn, while the shy, quieter Adele leads the way with confidence and stamina. Nothing is as it is when the two women are embraced by Mother Nature, Mount Etna, and her passionate, unpredictable energy. The Sicilians call it Idda (she), and the she-volcano draws these two girl friends into the line of fire to discover the scary conclusion: whatever lies unsaid between them is scarier than the summit of a rapturous volcano.
Idda is all about the mountain between us: unresolved feelings, hauntings, or suppressed desires. A small indie film that captures a few moments in time; it may feel a little undecided for some viewers, but at its heart, it tells a story that speaks to those who listen—a very feminine movie about love's survival in the wild.
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