This is a somewhat sobering watch about a family living close to the breadline, on perhaps the outskirts of society. There is a lot of footage of bees, so if your especially squeamish about them then this won't be a film for you, suffice to say. I suppose there was something respectable about how the children seemed so comfortable around said bees. There is a definite dysfunctional side/element to the family - it was sad seeing the arguments and I felt sorry for certain characters. This is a good watch, perhaps not brilliant but good. If your a fan of world cinema then I'd say this is worth a watch.

Fell asleep but it seems nice.

I quote: "WONDER: a feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar." Indeed.

Interesting look at an isolated existence that's suddenly invaded and disrupted, but little of substance actually happens, and there's not a lot of pace to the film either.

Italian and German with subtitles. Written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher. The film is centred on Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu) and her odd family in the middle of nowhere on a run-down farm in Tuscany. The family business is making honey and this coming-of-age drama vividly shows their isolated life and their struggles with keeping their bees intact. Bad weather, poison weedkiller and escaping swarms are some of their problems. The plotline is very weak though, it is as if we are just following a rambling episode of their existence. Pretty though it is visually. The father is a blow-hard ranting against the outside world. He desperately wants things to stay the same, but the outside world intrudes into his insularity. Gelsomina, like most teenagers want to break away from the confines of the family and an opportunity arises when a cheesy show turns up on a video shoot. The show is offering money and a grand prize for the most artisan product in the area. So their honey is in with a chance. Predictably enough the father is dead set against entering the competition, but Gelsomina covertly enters anyway. In addition, as they are desperate for money they take in a virtually mute 14 year old delinquent boy as part of his rehabilitation whose only virtue seems to be the ability to whistle nicely. The storyline doesn't seem to make his presence relevant until some scenes towards the end. Another oddity in the plot is the purchase of a camel, which then refuses to stand up. It made no sense, why did the otherwise tight fisted father decide to buy a camel? There was also no explanation of why the father often slept on a mattress in the middle of the yard. Baffling. Part of the raison d'etre of the film may be to show the vanishing poverty stricken parochial way of life in Tuscany and the rise of tourism as a more profitable enterprise. The end scene emphasises this. It won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Un film noioso che non lascia il segno, se non per la decadenza vista nella pellicola.

Italian family drama recalls neo-realist classics, while also being charming and poetic in a very timeless way. Director Alice Rohrwacher clearly wants to enlighten on a dying way-of-life with her film, and she does so by keeping the film modest. It lacks a sound track, and fussy camerawork (aside from Tarkovsky-esque meditative long shots), and instead focuses on the characters and their plight against modernization. While the film can be heavy, it's never forwardly dark or unpleasant, and its bittersweet ending is fully-earned. A bright spot for contemporary Italian cinema.

"The Wonders" is a delightfully strange coming-of-age film from Italy. That being said, having been born into a dysfunctional family with an uptight, paranoid father who owns a business of the agricultural sort that I've worked at since I was young and will inherit, this film hits particularly close to home for me. For most everyone else, I can't guarantee that, but I can say that you're likely to never see another film like this one.

7.1/10, my review: http://wp.me/p1eXom-2j9

cinegeek.de The Wonders über eine Imker Familie an der Trasimenischen See, ist ein Film, der zwei verschiedene Arten des Filmemachens miteinander verbindet: Zum einen ist The Wonders emotional und intensiv, zum anderen ist es aber auch ein Film, in dem nicht allzu viel passiert. Die Imker Familie ist neu in der Gegend und noch dem modernen urbanen Leben verhaftet. Der Vater Wolfgang (Sam Louwyck), ein Landkommunarde, der als Ökobauer gegen Pestizide zu Felde zieht. Die Mutter Mutter (Alba Rohrwacher) ackert im Gemüsegarten, um die Familie zu ernähren. Ausserdem ist da noch die ehemalige Hippie Landarbeiterin Coco (Sabine Timoteo). Die Tochter Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu) hat eine besondere Fähigkeit: Sie kann die Bienen furchtlos in den Mund nehmen oder über Gesicht krabbeln lassen. Damit hofft sie in der 온라인카지노추천 Show von Milly Catena (Monica Bellucci) aufzutreten - was wiederum den Vater, den Patriarchen erzürnt. Die meiste Zeit beobachten wir einfach die Familie, wie sie ihre tägliche Arbeit verrichtet oder darüber redet. In Episode erzählt uns Alice Rohrwacher diese Geschichten, von Menschen mit Ecken und Kanten, die echt wirken. Oft denke ich beim Schauspiel gar nicht an Spiel, sondern echtes Verhalten. Der Film versucht nicht, dokumentarisch zu wirken, aber es gibt Momente, da scheint es trotzdem so. Die Aussage, der Film hätte wenig Handlung, muss an dieser Stelle korrigiert werden. Es gibt so etwas wie treibende Emotionen, nicht aber einen traditionellen Plot. Das Geschehen funktioniert weniger wie eine Grund-Effekt-Folge. Manchmal fragt man sich aber auch einfach: "Wieso sind wir immer noch an dieser Stelle? Warum kann es jetzt nicht weiter gehen?" Rohrwacher scheint dem odernen Filmemachen einfach den Rücken zugekehrt haben. Ihr Film wirkt manchmal wie aus der Zeit gefallen; ich denke an die frühen 70er, da man einfach ungewöhnliche Menschen in verschiedenen Situationen darstellte. Einfach mit der Kamera drauf halten. mehr auf cinegeek.de

Alba Rohrwacher writes, directs, and stars in her sophomore film, 'The Wonders'. If there was ever a film I was on the fence about, this is it. Parts are delightful, while others are a slog. There was one male character in particular who didn't fit in, other than to provide a love interest. This could have used a rewrite or two. The acting is mostly fine, and it's visually by no means rough on the eyes, but it didn't connect as the coming of age drama that was intended for me because it appeared to me the girl had made little growth from start to finish. I'm not unhappy I saw this Italian feature, but wouldn't have missed it if I didn't. A thumbs in the middle movie if I've ever seen one. Final Score: 5.8/10

Slow, slow, slow. Random, awkward. Even the scenery was boring.

The Wonders is without a single ounce of pretentiousness.....and this world needs more films like this !

The lazy younger sister is perhaps cinema's most endearing young sasspot since The Piano's Anna Paquin.

It was... exquisite. Felt a bit too long though.

This film is another proof for the very distinctive taste of the Cannes Film Festival. Recipient of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in the same year when "Winter Sleep" won the Palme d'Or, "The Wonders" shares the same gritty landscape of a faraway land with "Winter Sleep" with souls tempered by the hardship of environment and human lives, yet is a totally different depiction, a way brighter one, of humanity. If "Winter Sleep" is all about the decay of human lives due to ages, due to hopelessness, due to the eternal sleep of people living, trailing along in fact, without any desire to thrive, to bloom, then "The Wonders" is all about people at their most miserable states, poor in money, poor at heart, yet still desperately love each other, love life, desperately try to prove their love in an often strange way. [SPOILER] A father spending all money his family has to buy an useless ... camel for his daughter, who is already a charming young girl no longer caring for her childhood dream of a mythical camel, an auntie (probably?) living as recklessly as she can yet still caring for the adolescent desire to be beautiful, to be famous, of her young niece, they all care for each other, that may be the biggest "wonder" of the film. The second wonder of the film is Gelsomina, the beautiful, beautiful coming-of-age girl who deeply cares for her poor father and the whole family yet innocently dreams of escaping the hardship of the bee-keeping life, escaping the nothingness of her family's farm. The film has its moments of beauty, mostly when Gelsomina was on screen, but its tempo is slow, character development is somewhat unsatisfactory (despite some beautiful and warm-hearted revelation about the main characters). Not as a "wonder" as I expected (especially the often narrow frames of the film did not show me any of the Italian beautiful nature that I had hoped before watching), this is still a small, and nice film, about humanity, about the beauty of the coming-of-age.

Being a child of a farmer and the rural life. I begin by saying it was a sweet little Italian movie. It is not here to entertain you, but to give an alarming message. The world's human population is growing rapidly, but within, the farmer's counts are shrinking. Hunger will be one of the future's biggest concerns to deal. This film is about a farmer family that depicted from the perspective of what's causing for the people like them to disappear. There are a very few movies on this theme, in that, all the farmer's movies won't illustrate harvesting and hardworks rather focuses on romance, revenge and other subplots. I think this was true to what it was promised and you would feel glad watching this if you are capable to realise the facts. A 12 years old girl, Gelsomina, with her parents and three younger sisters lives in a rural Italy. They are the bee farmers, living with a strict order of the life, especially when it comes to the profession. And this story was told from the Gelsomina's viewpoint about everything she and her family goes through. After her father who got no son, she has to carry on the family's tradition to the next generation. She's absolutely on it as she's naturally gifted and stronger than anyone in the family, including her father who's no match for her. Moreover, she's already running the family with moral. But when they reach a crossroad, some unexpected decisions have to be made which is basically the remaining portion. "You would need a slave. Instead of 4 daughters." I can't say it is a must see, because it is still a movie and looks for an opportunity in between to amuse you. Either, it is not afraid to unfold the reality, that's the best of this film. It had an amazing cast, but I don't know anyone of them, of course, except Monica Bellucci in a cameo. Cinematography was great, they were not trying to seduce the viewers with the beautiful countryside scenic rather presenting as it is. Beside the film let you know about bee keeping and honey extraction. It is not an easy job, thinking bees do all the work and we just snatch it using protection costume. But surrounding environment and all matters. There's no CGI, some of the dangerous scenes were shot under the guidance of the real pros with a specialised documentary crew. It proves a coming-of-age story can also be told in this manner. Urbanising, hunters, tourism influx, name it... all these are affecting peace in the rural life. This film covers most of the factors in a simple fashion, It was not that easy for everyone to understand the end part as it contained two way meaning, literal and metaphor. One is a report card for the actuality and the other one is a cinematic conclusion. Overall, it tackles on the matured contents and children are the part of it, especially the last quarter all about them. And finally, everyone won't desire for a movie like this, but IMO certainly worth spending time for it. 8/10

We follow an Italian beekeeper and father of four daughers. They intend to live a simple, rural life. Sam Louwyck is portraying the father in a great way. It's fun to see that he has done films like "Rundskop" and "Ex Drummer" earlier. One great and overlooked film, and a very unique film. By the looks of it he's really busy at the moment to, doing 10 apperences by the end of the year. Maybe his big break are comming up soon? Anyhow, in this film he digs his life and job, but his oldest daughter Gelsomina - the true lead here is starting to have bigger thoughts about life, love and possibilites. This is not a plot driven film. It's more about emotions, changes and the crossing of dreams and reality. Is the pure, minimalistic and quite struggling life the best way to live after all? Not a hard film to follow, but it takes some time for the viewer to get into it. The first half feels slow and random - small things turn out as big things here. It's cool to see Monica Bellucci here, very unexpectedly. She has a rather big role here, especially for the oldest girl. Well acted, unpolished and soft film with som OK happenings that spice it up a tiny bit. A risky film to give a go, but you might up liking it. It never blew me away, but it will be remembered for it's mixture of slow change, the dreamlike approach of hope and it's realisticness. 6.5 out of 10 outdoor beds.

Unconventional and good hearted with a rough charm.

Has an almost non existent plot yet still has moments of magic, humour and spirit. Perfect casting, performances and direction.