Ciao Bella (2007)

Recommended

Sweden

Feature Film

Director: Mani Maserrat-Agah

Writer: Jens Jonsson

Cinematographer: Andréas Lennartsson

Composer: Martin Willert

Cast: Poyan Karimi, Chanelle Lindell, Oliver Ingrosso, Fredrika Tham, Arash Bolouri, Hussein Kazem, Adam Lundgren, Jimmy Lindström, Lotta Karlge, Mina Azarian, Ali-Reza Modjallal

A quiet, middleclass 16-year-old boy of Iranian decent, desperate for a girlfriend, pretends to be an Italian whilst at an international school football tournament in Gothenburg in order to get to know a (pregnant) local girl, who lives alone with her sophomoric unemployed father, but their secrets and lies soon catch up with them, in Maserrat-Agah’s moving and gently funny film, which transcends its contrived and often silly plot with some affecting performances and sensual photography. Iain.Stott