Dreams and dramas of young actors in the early 1980s - Les Amandiers - Marina's review

(Photos are courtesy of the Cannes Film Festival)

Second feature film by actress Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as director, The Almond Trees - presented as a world premiere, in competition, a 75° edition of the Cannes Film Festival - turned out to be a pleasant surprise within the famous film event.

Extremely intimate and personal, the film stages Stella's story (an extraordinary Nadia Tereszkiewicz), a twenty year old girl, that, in the early eighties, along with many of his other peers, joins an exclusive theater school in Paris, with the aim of first doing an internship in New York, then, once again in France, to start performing in the first theatrical performances staged by some teachers of the school itself.

Anxiety for auditions, the first loves, and receive, important personal dramas e, not least, the problem of AIDS, which in those years spread very easily among young people, are staged by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in a fresh film, dreamer but realistic at the same time. A film in which the eighties, with all the important socio-cultural changes they brought with them, they provide the perfect setting for not one, but many intertwining stories, that influence each other. Stories of personal growth and first - often even painful - confrontations with the world of "adults". Portraits of crucial years that will forever change the lives of the protagonists.

Sincere and passionate, The Almond Trees he sees within himself a series of characters (some of which, especially with regard to Adèle, Stella's best friend, they would have needed more in-depth analysis, given their verve), each with their own dreams and problems, each with a distinct personality.

The Almond Trees obviously he sees within himself highly dramatic moments e, in the same way, it also deals with rather thorny issues (oltre all’AIDS, there is also an important discussion on drug use and how they contribute to amplifying insecurities and that sense of disorientation experienced by those who are most vulnerable), without ever being redundant or didactic, but giving us a colorful and varied fresco of the Eighties seen from the perspective of those who for the first time found themselves dealing with the "outside world", as well as unforgettable characters, incredibly alive and pulsating. A pleasant surprise within the contest of this one Cannes Film Festival 2022.

marina fears