FILM REVIEW: "Fuori" dances between its strengths, but does it sing?

Mario Martone’s Fuori explores rather than follows the life of Goliarda Sapienza (played by Valeria Golino); the author of The Art of Joy. Despite the opening credits contextualising the writer’s story (both published and lived), this film has little interest in serving the surface-level docudrama genre. It explains that Goliarda has recently come out of prison, turned 56, and is broke. Unbound to trendy expectations of covering key dates, affected parties, or events, Fuori’s lack of convention is one of its most stirring traits. Sapienza’s evolution is depicted as a process of recollection and retrospective understanding. Postured like memory and rooted in the grief of ephemeral clarity, her story grapples with what we lose and what we hold onto. A product of both, the beautiful delinquent Roberta (Matilda De Angelis) is an enigmatic, Dionysian engine of Fuori, as well as the only linear thread of narrative.

Over the course of an hour and fifty-seven minutes, the two listless ex-cons explore their relationship out in the world beyond their prison time – Goliarda terrified by existential indifference, Roberta suffering from gathering waves of heroin withdrawal-induced malaise. It is a film that seems to procrastinate, uneasy with the pressure of making any truly convincing thematic arguments. Despite that, while somewhat obscured, there’s value in Fuori’s representation of both maturity and sexuality as concepts less restrictive than commonly understood. The more senior Goliarda is often childish, Roberta omniscient, and at any moment their respective vulnerabilities threaten to reverse the dynamic. Though enjoyable, at times moving, Fuori’s non-linear see-saw between past and future struggles to elevate the story beyond itself.

2.5 stars out of 5

This film was reviewed as a part of the 2025 St. Ali Italian Film Festival, running from the 19th of Sep - 16th of Oct. Click here for the full programme!