Alice Rohrwacher follows her beguiling The Wonders (2014) with the no less lyrical and even more fabulist Happy as Lazzaro.

In the wide, green eyes of actor Adriano Tardiolo, Rohrwacher finds a gaze that sheds all cynicism, a guileless anchor for her devastating exploration of the false promise of progress and the elusive possibility of collective happiness.

Rohrwacher's eye for gestures is revealing of class, pride, humour, and values.

Philosophical, enigmatic and moving, Happy as Lazzaro may start as this...drama about one family’s dominion over poor working people..., but, by the end, it proves to be so much more than just a tale about the swindling and corruption of the innocent.