02/04/2025 - The directorial debut by Italian actress Greta Scarano is a sensitive and soothing comedy about a sister who must take care of her older autistic brother

When Joaquin Phoenix in Joker writes in his diary that “the worst part of having mental illness is that people expect you to behave as if you DON’T”, he acknowledges that society judges us without knowing the truth behind your behaviour. And yet people at the cinema, like in reality, want the mad to play mad, they want to be seduced by subjects far removed from the classic canons of evaluation. The proof is the great success that this narrative trope continues to have. Siblings, the directorial debut by actress Greta Scarano in which she directs Matilda De Angelis and first-time actor on the autistic spectrum Yuri Tuci, is part of this tradition. The film will be released in Italy on 3 April, on autism awareness day, through 01 Distribution, after its world premiere at Bif&st in Bari, where it received the SIAE Debut Film prize.

Inspired by the true story of Margherita and Damiano Tercon, who in 2020 co-wrote the book Mia sorella mi rompe le balle (‘My sister is busting my balls’), the film follows a young woman, Irene, who works in Rome in a large solar panel company and is called back to her hometown of Rimini by her mother (Maria Amelia Monti), who has been diagnosed with cancer: she will have to take care of her fortysomething older brother Omar. After a difficult initial confrontation, finding each other will lead to inner acceptance and self-discovery for both of them, and will create an authentic, empathetic and mature connection between the two siblings. It is in the end the same plot as in Rain Man, which in 1988 made Asperger’s syndrome more widely known and earned Dustin Hoffman the Best Actor Oscar.

Far away from Barry Levinson’s Hollywood road movie, Siblings brings its characters to the countryside, between domestic walls, surrounded by aunts and uncles, and on the seaside of Federico Fellini’s hometown, where director of photography Valerio Azzali captures the evocative winter light. Comedy is the only register chosen by Greta Scarano, who directs with sensibility and empathy by leveraging the alchemy that stabilises between the two protagonists. At first, Irene doesn’t know how to take Omar’s stubborn little quirks, but then, the memory of herself as a kid, when she wanted to become a cabaret artist, a dream soon repressed in favour of a “normal” job and life, push her to indulge her brother’s ambitions: to become an autistic gangsta rapper. She accompanies him to Bologna to audition for an important television talent show à la X Factor, running the risk of a disillusionment that could upset Omar’s balance.

That deviation from routine, played in a television environment with the reassuring presence of familiar faces from the small screen who risk to steal the scene from our protagonist, is the only “test” to which our hero is subjected on his cinematic journey.

If we exclude Omar’s small misadventure with a mugger, the flat screenplay by Sofia Assirelli, Tieta Madia and Scarano herself doesn’t offer any particularly dramatic moments, as would be expected given the subject. As the book’s subtitle on which the film is based suggests, “a normal story of autism”, that of Omar is a slight neurodivergence (although it is sometimes accentuated by suicidal attempts) and his behaviour never disturbs the spectator. This isn’t a matter of normalising mental illness, but rather of only showing its most comedic and “happiest” aspects, avoiding the more dramatic ones, those that are faced daily and courageously by many families and that many films about neurodiversity do show us. Scarano’s debut gives the spectator a good reflection on responsibility, family ties and awareness, but it softens the tones of uniqueness and diversity.

Siblings was produced by Groenlandia and Halong with Rai Cinema, in collaboration with Netflix. Rai Cinema International Distribution is handling sales.

(Translated from Italian)