Growing up When the Adults Won’t

Read Time:5 Minute, 51 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Mosquitoes (Le bambine)
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Genre: Drama, Comedy
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 50m
Director(s): Valentina Bertani, Nicole Bertani
Writer(s): Maria Sole Limodio, Valentina Bertani, Nicole Bertani
Cast: Mia Ferricelli, Agnese Scazza, Petra Scheggia, Clara Tramontano, Milutin Dapčević, Jessica Piccolo Valerani, Cristina Donadio, Matteo Martari
Where to Watch: shown at the 78th Locarno Film Festival

RAVING REVIEW: MOSQUITOES (LE BAMBINE) takes the notion of a summer friendship and turns it into something far more complex and revealing. Set in 1997, the film follows eight-year-old Linda as she leaves her grandmother’s Swiss villa with her mother, Eva—a woman more like an unpredictable older sister than a parent. Their path leads them to Ferrara, Italy, where Linda meets sisters Azzurra and Marta. What begins as a chance encounter becomes an alliance, the three forming a self-declared gang to protect their youth and each other from the unreliable adults surrounding them.

The Bertani sisters (directors and co-writers along with Maria Sole Limodio), Valentina and Nicole, draw heavily on their childhood memories. Still, they make it clear that this isn’t a straightforward autobiography. The events are refracted through the perspective of children—truth glimpsed in fragments, colored by misinterpretation and instinct. That choice of perspective defines the film’s tone. We don’t get explanations handed to us; instead, we learn about the world alongside the girls, sensing the same uncertainty, discomfort, and triumphs they do. It’s a storytelling approach that rewards patience, gradually revealing the devastations and rare comforts in these girls’ lives.

The adult world here is far from a safe harbor. Parents are selfish, distracted, or even cruel. Eva is captivating but unreachable, more interested in chasing whims than providing stability. Azzurra and Marta’s mother drifts into her doll-making ambitions, while their father barely registers as a presence. Even kindness often comes with complications—Carlino, the queer babysitter, seeks belonging in a community that tolerates him only on its terms. This network of flawed adults becomes the backdrop against which the girls claim their agency, finding power in solidarity and small acts of rebellion.

One of MOSQUITOES’ most striking qualities is its ability to balance this darkness with warmth. The girls’ friendship is alive with humor, rivalry, shared curiosity, and moments of unmatched trust. The Bertanis and their casting team built this authenticity by allowing real bonds to develop off-screen, which translates into effortless interactions on-screen. Mia Ferricelli, Agnese Scazza, and Petra Scheggia inhabit their roles with an honesty that feels unfiltered, never tipping into the over-the-top child-actor territory.

Visually, the film makes a bold format choice, employing a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. At first, this almost square frame can feel restrictive, even claustrophobic. But that’s the point. The format echoes the limited scope of a child’s understanding—what’s visible within the frame is all they know, while the edges hide truths they can’t yet grasp. It also recalls Polaroid photographs, an apt metaphor for memory: a flash of recognition that slowly develops into a fixed image. This framing lends the story an intimacy that might be lost in a wider format, compelling us to stay close to the girls and share their perspective.

The camera’s movement matches this intimacy. The cinematography stays at the children’s height, following them with a fluidity that mirrors the unpredictability of their days. Daylight scenes are warm and saturated, evoking the sun-soaked summers of the late ’90s. In contrast, night scenes shift into deeper, more mysterious tones—worlds lit by televisions, streetlamps, and the flicker of curiosity.

Thematically, the film flips the usual coming-of-age arc. This isn’t about rushing into adulthood; it’s about holding on to childhood for as long as possible. The girls’ acts of rebellion—sneaking out at night, exploring forbidden spaces—aren’t framed as steps toward maturity but as ways to preserve their sense of wonder and autonomy. In a world where the adults have abdicated their roles as guides and protectors, the children learn to protect themselves, even if they can’t yet articulate what they’re defending against.

This approach also allows MOSQUITOES to push back against idealized portrayals of motherhood. The mothers here are fragile, absent, or distracted—not out of malice, but out of their own limitations and unresolved desires. By portraying them as complex and flawed rather than saintly, the film avoids sentimentality and acknowledges that love can coexist with neglect and frustration.

It’s this refusal to oversimplify—whether in the portrayal of adults, the dynamics of friendship, or the texture of memory—that gives MOSQUITOES its staying power. The Bertanis have crafted a film that feels lived-in, unpolished in the right ways, like a memory that hasn’t been cleaned up for public display. It’s both affectionate and unsparing, a love letter to the resilience of childhood that never forgets how unfair it can be to grow up.

For all its specificity—its 1997 setting, its very Italian middle-class neighborhood—the film’s truths feel universal. Childhood is often painted in broad strokes, either idealized or romanticized. MOSQUITOES resists both, showing it as a place where joy and disappointment sit side by side, and where the fiercest loyalty can grow from the smallest acts of care. It’s a film of small moments and subtle shifts, yet its impact builds until it becomes undeniable. MOSQUITOES doesn’t shout its intentions—it trusts you to lean in and listen, to catch the whispers in the spaces adults have left unattended.

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[photo courtesy of CINÉDOKKÉ, EMMA FILM, LUME, MANNY FILMS]

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