Small Body

Small Body (Piccolo corpo, 2022) is an Italian drama by Laura Samani you can watch online on iFILM. On a remote fishing coast in 1900, a young woman named Agata gives birth to a stillborn daughter, and church law leaves the unbaptized soul stranded in limbo.

Agata hears of a mountain shrine where a dead infant can be coaxed into a single breath, just long enough for a baptism. She hides the tiny body in a wooden box and walks out of her village, crossing marshes and icebound passes. Along the way she falls in with Lince, a half-feral drifter of uncertain gender who agrees to lead her north. Celeste Cescutti and Ondina Quadri carry the film, backed by a largely non-professional cast.

Samani's debut feature premiered at Cannes Critics' Week and was shot in the fading Friulian dialect, resting on faith rather than dialogue. It plays like a folk legend bent into a road movie, slow ritual cinema for anyone drawn to the early work of Alice Rohrwacher. Stream Small Body (2022) online on iFILM.