IFF26 Sweetheart

Written and directed by Margherita Spampinato in her feature film debut, this award-winning drama follows a young boy who discovers ancient mysteries, love and superstition when he is sent to spend his summer holidays with an aunt in Sicily. A lively, cheeky boy, Nico's (Marco Fiore) family lives a modern, technological and hyper-connected lifestyle. He is sent to spend the summer in Sicily, as a guest of an elderly aunt, Zia Gela (Aurora Quattrocchi), a religious and grumpy woman. She lives alone in the house where she was born and raised, a place untouched by technology, without wi-fi, and suspended in time. Nico's aunt welcomes him with annoyance, introducing him to her mysterious world inhabited by angels and spirits, dominated by a magical sense of religion and steeped in superstition. But, as modernity clashes with tradition and science with faith, a reluctant summer together transforms into a spellbinding adventure when Nico learns that the mysterious Sicilian house is full of secrets.