The First Assignment (2011)
Nena, a girl from the south of Italy, has to travel far from home to get her first job as a teacher. She is sad, not because she has to leave her mother and sister, with whom everything is clear and sometimes difficult, but because she is having a serious love affair with someone from her village to whom she is very committed: a young upper-middle class man who seems to sincerely feel the same. They promise that nothing will change between them. It is only until June and then she can ask for a transfer. And so she leaves, a little sad and a little curious about what is in store for her. But what she finds is completely different from what she imagined.
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It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
If you thought that world cinema has run out of strong characters then you are slightly mistaken as "The First Assignment" written and directed by Giorgia Cecere shows us that the tradition of making films with strong characters is still very much alive.She has created a strong feminine character in the form of her protagonist Nena,a teacher who learns some crucial lessons in life when she has to move away from home in order to take her first teaching assignment.Italian director Giorgia Cecere,who has worked as a writer with leading Italian cinéaste Gianni Amelio,directs an excellent story with absolutely ordinary characters.Her film celebrates the beauty of life which must be led no matter difficulties and problems which one faces whether in love or in any other field.Much of this film's message is communicated through its portrayal of ordinary lives in a rugged southern Italian setting.This setting also heightens the film's message that ordinary people crack in surroundings which are alien to them.Il Primo Incarico shows that no logic can be attached to a human life as events beyond control may completely change its course.Lastly,Italian actress Isabelle Ragonese is a joy to watch as she gives enormous dignity to her character of Nena.This is a film for those viewers who let a drama unfold in front of their eyes at its own pace.
A lovely film about a young woman sorting out her place in life when she's sent to teach in a small peasant village in Puglia. Complicated, engaging, heartfelt and wholly entertaining. Just when you think you know where it's going, it changes course. Highly recommended!The film took the top prize at the New Italian Film Festival in San Francisco last night - and deservedly so. I liked the film not only for the story and the acting, but also for a look at the life of people in Puglia - who almost never make it onto the big screen. For years, Marcel Pagnol's films about French peasants have been entertaining us. Now Puglia can take its place as well.