Vera

"Vera" reaches a special place in contemporary cinema with its creation of a part-documentary and part-fiction picture. Inspired by the real manners and struggles of Vera Gemma - italian actress and daughter of Giuliano Gemma - it tells the story of her day-to-day life. I must admit I wasn't sure what to think of this film when I started watching it. On one hand I appreciated its raw and naturalistic approach with simple cinematography and no music score. On the other hand I would say we, as the audience, must wait till the end to see and truly understand the meaning and essence of this picture. For that I am worried that the first 30 minutes of "Vera" will not capture the viewer's attention, because the fact is that nothing overly exciting happens in the first half hour that would hook you in. My opinion is that this film was ment to be watched in the cinema on a big screen as a part of a film festival, where you can truly dig deeper into the story and see all of its layers.

I think the most interesting part of this film is the grey area between reality and fiction. The plot is fictional but the characters are real as protagonist Vera Gemma plays out a fictional version of her own life that appears to be deeply rooted in reality. It covers several themes such as the burden of living in the shadow of a famous parent, pressure to live up to unrealistic beauty standards and expectations of success, yearning to be loved for who you are whilst ultimately succumbing to relationships that are of a transactional nature. The film contains several poignant scenes such as a visit to the graveyard with a friend or a voice over of Vera and her sister Giuliana revisiting old reels of film and photographs of their early childhood. In these scenes you get the sense that you are watching the life story of a real person, and they are woven together with a fictional plot line about a young boy from a poor family to create an almost tragic portrait of Vera who could never really escape a life of being 'the daughter of'.