Movies can sometimes make us hope that we will learn our lessons, overcome our differences and make the world come together. That seems to be the mission of Margherita Spampinato’s debut feature Sweetheart, which premiered in Locarno’s Cineasti del presente competition.

Nico (Marco Fiore) is on the verge of puberty and still struggling to accept the departure of his beloved babysitter Violetta (Camille Dugay, in a brief appearance), who is leaving her job in order to get married. Since the school is out for summer, Nico is being sent from Milan to his great aunt Gela's (veteran actress Aurora Quattrocchi) in Sicily. However, for Nico, the change of environment is not remotely as hard as the change in terms of time, as two of them come from different centuries and therefore live different, almost incompatible lifestyles.

Gela is religious and passionate about getting together with her neighbours, while Nico’s only passion seems to be his sadness over Violetta and the video games he plays on his cell phone. Gela cooks traditional food, but Nico wants something more “normal”. She insists on order in the house and following routines, while he is accustomed of being left alone and taken care of. 

Nico's first encounter with the neighbourhood kids who are also staying with their grandmothers in the same building ends in embarrassment for him. But with time, Nico and Gela start bridging their differences and, thanks to the bond he forms with the only girl in the neighbourhood, Rosa (Martina Ziami), he gets accepted into the kids gang. But what will happen when some carefully kept secrets and placed lies come to the surface?

Powered by strong performances from young actors who already have some credits under their belts, with the help of the always great Aurora Quattrocchi, and heightened by some interesting artistic choices, such as the chiaroscuro contrasts of lighting in Claudio Cofrancesco’s largely hand-held camerawork, Sweetheart is a sweet, warm piece of work that achieves a certain intimate and cosy feeling. The question is, however, whether the three-act structure, as well as the music, which starts in a tense mode but soon deflates tension, end up making the film too predictable. Additionally, while some exaggerations in the differences between Nico and Gela are clearly played for laughs, they also set a tone that is way too naive to be taken at face value. 

Ultimately, the world Spampinato has created with Sweetheart is too unlikely in today’s reality and looks more like a diffuse memory of her own childhood, rather than a truthful representation of the rift between generations today. The point she tries to make is not exactly new, but it stands firmly whether we side with one protagonist’s point of view or the other's: technology cannot replace human contact, just as time cannot be frozen out of regret or sadness, so this gap between young and elderly should be overcome through compromise and joint efforts. We should also keep in mind that the middle generation, which should serve as a mediator, is completely left out from the film, and probably for good reason. Ultimately, however, Sweetheart reveals that a film made from the seemingly typical template of the contrasts between children and old people can offer many more layers for reflection.

Sweetheart is an Italian production by the companies Yagi Media and Arcopinto. Fandango deals with the sales.