Chiara

Die Kusine, die zu Chiara ins Kloster geflohen ist, soll von den Männern der Adelsfamilie mit brutaler Gewalt zurück nach Assisi gebracht werden. Nun spätestens wird klar, warum so viele Frauen Chiaras Beispiel gefolgt sind: nicht um auf ihr bisheriges Leben zu verzichten, sondern um es selbst zu bestimmen und der Zwangsverheiratung zu entgehen. Susanna Nicchiarelli dreht ihren dritten Film über bedeutende Frauen (nach NICO, 2017, und MISS MARX, der 2020 die Viennale eröffnete) über Klara von Assisi, die ihren erstaunlich demokratischen Orden nach langem Ringen mit dem Papst gründet, damit es auch Frauen möglich ist, wie ihr Freund Franz (von Assisi) und seine Mönche zu leben. (Ferdinand Keller)

In Anwesenhei von Susanna Nicchiarelli.

CHIARA is the haunting portrait of a rebellious woman who questions power structures and strives to live life on her own terms. Nicchiarelli’s take on this story is engaging. After so many movies about St. Francis, she makes St. Clare her feminist heroine, basing her narrative on the research of medievalist Chiara Frugoni. Interpreting the saint’s radical religious choice from today’s perspective, the director skillfully avoids the trap of hagiography, giving us a lively, defiant and multilayered portrait of St. Clare.
Despite the accuracy of the costumes and subdued colour palette, the visual evocation of the medieval world is not classically realistic; often disrupted by sudden outbursts from Chiara’s followers joyfully singing and dancing to music by Anonima Frottolisti, the film’s ambience is at times reminiscent of a musical. There is also the groundbreaking use of a pulsating, sometimes obscure vernacular, which stood in opposition to Latin as the elitist language of power at the time. Unconventional, bold and refreshing, matching the spirit of its courageous protagonist beguilingly played by the young Margherita Mazzucco, CHIARA mesmerizes us and warms our hearts up to its last, utterly surprising image. (Maria Giovanna Vagenas)

In the presence of Susanna Nicchiarelli.

Susanna Nicchiarelli: COSMONAUTA (2009), DISCOVERY AT DAWN (2012), NICO, 1988 (2017), MISS MARX (2020)