SYNOPSIS

Elsa Morante sent a greetings card to her friend Goffredo Fofi for Christmas 1971. In it she described an event that had taken place many years earlier, at a Christmas lunch, in a Roman Catholic boarding school. This short film is a loose adaptation of the story she told him.
Pupil, the term describing the quick-moving, vibrant black dot in our eyes that can skip, dance, shrink or dilate depending on the person before us, derives from the Latin: pupilla: YOUNG GIRL.

Awards

BIO

Alice Rohrwacher was born in Fiesole and studied in Turin and Lisbon.
She wrote and played music for the theatre before being drawn to cinema, where she began working as a documentary film editor. In 2011 she directed her first full- length film, Corpo Celeste (Heavenly Body) which was premiered at Cannes in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, or Directors’ Fortnight, and screened at the
Sundance, New York, London, Rio and Tokyo festivals.
Her second film, Le Meraviglie (The Wonders) won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2014, while her third Lazzaro Felice (Happy As Lazarus, 2018), received the Best Screenplay award in Cannes, as well as great international acclaim.
In 2015 she directed De Djess, a short in the Miu Miu Women’s Tale series.
In 2016 she directed La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi at the Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia.
In 2020 she directed the third and fourth episodes in the acclaimed Rai- HBO TV series My Brilliant Friend – The Story of a New Name, adapted from the novels by Elena Ferrante.
In 2021 she presented the documentary Futura, co- directed with Pietro Marcello and Francesco Munzi, at Cannes (Quinzaine).

In 2023 she was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Live Action Shorts category for Le Pupille (The Pupils) co-produced by Alfonso Cuarón for Disney.

CAST

Madre Superiora Fioralba ALBA ROHRWACHER
Suor Paoletta GRETA ZUCCHERI MONTANARI
Suor Caterina CARMEN POMMELLA
Suor Carmela LADY MARU
Rosa l’innamorata VALERIA BRUNI TEDESCHI
Serafina MELISSA FALASCONI
Teresa FEBE SAPIA
Fernanda FRANCESCA UCCELLI
Flora MILA BUGANE’
Renata MARIA RENATA CORELLI
Olga OLIVIA ASCARI
Giulietta ALMA PALMAS
Agostina MARGHERITA RIGHI
Maria SOFIA BENDYA
Elvira MIRIAM FORCELLA
Alida HEIDI VIOLA
Ermenegilda DALIA TONIOLI
Margherita MARGHERITA GRECO
Lavinia LAVINIA TASSI
Olimpia OLIMPIA TASSI
Gesù Bambina MARIA EUGENIA TASSI
Rodolfa MATILDE JACCHIA
Marilù MARIA LUISA BRIGUGLIA
Nora NORA LUCE BRIGUGLIA
Carla CARLA BRIGUGLIA