10/02/2025 - Lorenzo Pullega's debut feature is a dream-like ode to rural Italy, boasting great visuals but lacking cohesion

The Rhine Gold [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is the sole Italian entry in this year’s Big Screen Competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Lorenzo Pullega’s film explores the interesting similarity between the name of a river that starts its course in Tuscany and ends in the Emilia-Romagna region with the much more famous European Rhine, whose popularity is tied to Richard Wagner. Apparently, as the film itself shows in its opening sequence, some Japanese tourists once confused the two, ending up in Italy by accident while looking for the legendary flow of water from the opera. The subsequent scenes show a patchwork of stories revolving around the banks of the river, while an unseen narrator (a director who has been given the task of portraying il Reno, which clearly represents an alter ego of Pullega himself) carries the spectator into a myriad of narrative worlds, opening one after the other, always remaining at the same time in and out of the narration.

The film tries to hold together all of its stories as well as a significant number of characters, most of them with little or no real depth, closer to caricatures than three-dimensional figures. That’s not necessarily a flaw, considering that The Rhine Gold is most likely aiming for a similar style in a deliberate fashion. It is, indeed, an ensemble film, loosely echoing the work of Federico Fellini. The oneiric atmosphere created by the settings and the dialogues, for example, seems to have been inspired by works like Amarcord, wherein memories are scattered, just as they would be in someone’s mind.

The greatest challenge of such bold choices, however, lies in the inherent risk of ending up with something that does not fulfil its own ambitions. In this case, the scope of the film is clearly too wide, although its premise remains strong. On a more positive note, the actors are mostly compelling. The technical execution is also undoubtedly of high quality, as almost every scene looks like a painting and demonstrates the helmer’s great attention to detail. Nevertheless, The Rhine Gold struggles to find its own voice and lacks cohesion between its parts. The narrative loses its pacing over time, and risks disengaging the audience as its enchanted yet realistic world slowly fades.

In a word, Pullega’s film relies heavily on its superb technical qualities but remains trapped in its own broadly loose structure, which, despite being a key narrative choice, is also its greatest flaw.

The Rhine Gold is produced by Italian outfits Mompracem and Rheingold Film, in collaboration with RAI Cinema. Bologna-based firm I Wonder Pictures is selling it worldwide.