When love turns to betrayal and fails to serve its greatest purpose of making a man bloom, the spirit educates itself to reject it and looks for fulfilment somewhere else. And what can possibly be greater than love except God Himself. One will find Dario Almerighi’s character to be one of contradictions: betrayed by the woman he loved he turns to the divinity and becomes a priest, totally changing his life. When later, Rosa - the woman he loved - reappears into his life asking him to return to her he will find his decision challenged and his new convictions tested.
‘In the Rose’s Shadow’ brings to screen two different sides and dimensions of love: the terrestrial one versus the love for God. The man before he became a priest still bares the emotional scars of the old love affair. Human emotions like anger (on Rosa) and possibly hate for what she did emerge with the new reunion. The woman reminds him of a painful past he has been trying to leave behind. After repeated attempts to reject her, the priest must eventually resign to confessing her - a request he cannot possibly deny.
The confession scene unveils the best session of acting coming from actor Fabrizio Bordignon and the most intense moment of the film. The priest finds it hard not to get emotionally involved as Rosa tenderly insists for reconciliation. For a moment the woman’s truthful tone and warm words almost convince the character impersonated by Bordignon, but suddenly there is a rough shift in his attitude and the priest banishes her away. This is the moment that has the power to emotionally struck the public - behind the apparently sincere invitation to conciliation on the woman’s side, there lies a great temptation for the priest that is pushing him to surrender to the instincts and brake his vow once again for Rosa, this time endangering not only his ego but also his soul.
Dario Almerighi’s film, beautifully shot in clear-obscure and games of light and shadow has a real talent to raise a difficult question causing one to choose between an easy earthly (and after all humane) answer and a hard to make spiritual choice.
‘In the Rose’s Shadow’ is a provoking view!
Written by Vlad A. G