Drone Dreams: Luce's Enigmatic Italian Drama

Luca Bellino and Silvia Luzi's new film, "Luce", is an intriguing but perplexing work. Its opaque and indirect storytelling feels incomplete, leaving the audience grasping for meaning. This is a cinema that doesn't readily divulge its secrets, perhaps not even at all. The film's focus on extreme close-ups of the protagonist's face is in stark contrast to the hazy distance where its significance may reside.

Marianna Fontana plays a young woman living in a harsh Italian coastal town. She works miserably in a leather factory, one of many women tasked with stretching and shaping leather on an automated production line. The foreman, a man who often punishes workers by forcing them to haul heavy hides up a dumbwaiter shaft, adds to the grim atmosphere.

One day, the woman joins her aunt and extended family to celebrate a cousin's first communion. Dressed in a white, quasi-bridal gown, the young girl is the centre of attention. Our protagonist, however, reflects on her own communion, lamenting the uncomfortable shoes and the absence of a significant person from her life. A young photographer-cum-videographer, using his drone to capture aerial shots, seems to have developed a crush on her. Later, he takes her for a drive, demonstrating the drone's capabilities, including its ability to discreetly spy on people. However, the nature of her fascination with this technology remains unclear.

The experience appears to trigger a breakdown, or perhaps an epiphany, within her. Hallucinations and a sense of alternative reality begin to creep into her consciousness. She receives strange phone calls, an older man's voice on the line. Is it her father? Or a friend of his? As these calls persist, she becomes convinced it's her father, though the question lingers: has she manufactured this situation, or is it real? Is he in prison, or is this another romanticized fantasy? She concocts details about her life for his sake – but is the entire narrative an invention? This includes a handsome Milanese fashion designer who supposedly has his eye on her. She pretends to be preparing a stylish dinner for friends when he calls, but the line between reality and fabrication blurs.

The film builds towards an enigmatic climax. The photographer presents his final edit of the communion video, featuring a striking drone shot of the young woman. Initially a long shot, the drone zooms in, capturing her smoking pensively on the beach. Yet, we never saw this drone shot from her perspective earlier in the film. This disassociative strangeness reinforces the film's dreamlike quality. "Luce" feels like a lucid dream or a remembered one, a puzzle about how we perceive ourselves, or invent our own identities.

Luce screened at the Locarno film festival.