Feminism and transgender, Albanian style, in Laura Bispuri's quiet marvel, SWORN VIRGIN

That great film actress Alba Rohrwacher, whom TrustMovies has long referred to as Italy's answer to Meryl Streep, gives yet another of her versatile, bone-deep performances in the new Italian/Albanian movie SWORN VIRGIN. Adapted (from the novel by Elvira Dones) and directed by Laura Bispuri, whose first full-length film this is, the movie gives Ms Rohrwacher a particularly unusual role, that of Mark, aka Hana, a very masculine-looking young woman (or is this a very feminine-looking young man?) -- whom we first meet as s/he is being taught to herd goats atop a somewhat wild mountain range in Albania.

From the very next scene of the film, however, it is clear that something is quite wrong here. Our hero/heroine is unhappy, confused, and soon s/he is leaving this place, below, only to end up in a surprise visit to what would seem to be the home of a relative in Italy. Ms Bispuri, shown at left, alternates between scenes that take place in the present and past, so that slowly we come to understand what has happened to this young woman. This has to do with a particularly Albanian tradition of how to handle women who want the kind of freedom automatically handed to their male counterparts.

We've recently seen a fine French film -- Oscar nominee, Mustang -- that showed us something on this order involving Turkey and its fundamentalist ideas regarding women. And if you've seen certain films that take place in Albania and deal with subjects such as the Albanian idea of revenge --say, The Forgiveness of Blood -- you will quickly understand how, uh... backward these ideas can seem.

To go into much detail here would spoil the growing surprise, as well as the understanding we slowly come to experience of what is going on here -- not to mention ruining some of the fine work by Bispuri and Rohrwacher that helps us come to terms with it all. I don't think I've ever seen Ms Rohrwacher give such a self-effacing performance as here.

Mark/Hana is a character who is not allowed to see or be him/herself. So little wonder s/he cannot let any another person see inside, either. There are times that the actress is so quiet and "enclosed" that you'll want to crane your neck around the screen to try to get closer to her face in order to know her emotions and thoughts a little better.

So real and so committed to that reality is the actress that she holds us at every step along this strange journey. This involves her "sister," played beautifully by Flonja Kodheli; her helpful brother-in-law (Luan Jaha, above, left); and her niece (a lovely performance from newcomer Emily Ferratello, shown at right, three photos below).

We also meet a lifeguard (Lars Eidinger, above and below) at the pool in which Mark's niece practices her synchronized swimming -- which leads to one of the most interesting hand-jobs you're likely to have witnessed. Likewise our hero/heroine's first penetration scene: so fraught and unusual yet strangely liberating as any the movies have given us.

By the end of Sworn Virgin, most of our questions will have been answered, at least enough to understand who Mark/Hana really is and what s/he might hope to get from this strange and possibly welcoming new world that may now be called home.

The finale is as quiet, rich and full of wonder as all else in this fine first film. We're certain to hear from Ms Bispuri again soon, and of course we'll be getting lots more from Ms Rohrwacher -- who, in just 12 years has already accumulated some 52 acting credits. Few actresses work as often, as well, or as deeply as this one.

From Strand Releasing and running just 90 minutes, Sworn Virgin opens in New York City at the Village East Cinema this Friday, April 22. The following Friday, April 29, it will play Los Angeles at the new Laemmle Ahrya Fine Arts.

Soldini's COME UNDONE lets Rohrwacher and Favino raise our temperatures a bit

Because his first experience with truly sensual film came via Italy (La Dolce Vita, Rocco and His Brothers, L'Avventura), TrustMovies finds it odd that when Italian filmmakers these days place sexuality front and center, the results prove somehow less than fulfilling. Last year's The Man Who Loves (shown at the FSLC's Open Roads) was one example, and now we have COME UNDONE (Cosa voglio di più), the new movie from one of Italy's more popular (and currently exportable) filmmakers, Silvio Soldini (shown below), who earlier gave us Bread and Tulips, Agata and the Storm and Days and Clouds.

What is the reason for this?  Does sexuality/sensuality, when shown as a part -- even a very large part -- of an entire life work better than when it becomes nearly the only subject at hand? Perhaps. (TM wasn't all that fond of the initially-hot but finally-tiresome 9-1/2 Weeks, either. In any case, Signore Soldini has made a much better film than did Adrian Lyne.)

First of all, this Italian director captures quite well the easy-going, childless marriage of Anna and Alessio -- Alba Rohrwacher (above, right) and Giussepe Battiston, above left -- and the not-going-so-well marriage of Domenico and Miriam (Pierfrancesco Favino and Teresa Saponangelo). Money problem plague the latter, though it is the former's Anna who take the first step in initiating the affair with Domenico. As co-writer and director, Soldini's details are often on the mark -- particularly those of the tell-tale swimming attire that figures into things, and how aware one's co-workers can be when something's amiss.

Once the affair heats up, however, it can only go forward or end, and so midway the movie begins to vamp a bit to kill time. (Running two hours, as it does, there's a little too much time to effectively kill.) Back and forth we go: She's out, and then back in; he's out and then back in. For younger viewers who have not endured this sort of thing countless times already, there may indeed be some surprise and a bigger payoff. Others of us will have to content ourselves with the very good performances of actors who are always a pleasure to view.

Rohrwacher and Favino are two of Italy's most talented, award-laden and sought-after performers. Favino is also one of the country's hottest leading men, though this film, I believe, marks Rohrwacher's first foray into heavy-duty nudity and sex. She acquits herself splendidly, and may be the only actress I can think of who, within a couple of years' time, could have managed to play -- with utter truthfulness -- a psychologically handicapped high school girl (Giovanna's Father), a barely-educated, mountain-village heroine of WWII (The Man Who Will Come) and a role like this one. She's a treasure, and -- physically and talent-wise -- comparisons to Meryl Streep would not be out of order, though I do not know if Ms Rohrwacher does accents.

For his part Favino (above, right), whom you may have seen earlier in El Alamein, Saturn in Opposition and The Unknown Woman (plus a few American films such as Miracle at St. Anna, Night at the Museum, and The Chronicles of Narnai: Prince Caspian), is equally fine. He captures the neediness of this guy, as well as the sheer physical joy of losing oneself (while forgetting those problems on the home front) in the arms (and other areas) of someone new. One quibble: given the full-frontal we see of Rohrwacher, more of Favino's body on display would have seemed reasonable and equitable -- not to mention pleasurable for some of us.

Mr. Battiston is wonderful as Anna's jovial, fat and very patient husband, and though Ms. Saponangelo (above, left) gets saddled with the grousing wife, she does it justifiably and well. All in all, Come Undone is a perfectly adequate example -- with subtitles -- of the oooh, hot infidelity! genre. The movie opens this Friday, December 3, in New York at the Quad Cinema, Manhattan, and the IndieScreen, Brooklyn.