WHITE LIES

Italy, Belgium | 2025 | 99 min | col. | Italian

The secret of the origins of 25-year-old Alba/Dawn is locked away in the mind of her mother, who is unable to organize her memories and solve the enigma. Perhaps because she prefers to repress them, or because she already has. The young woman tries to delve into the remaining fragments of her memory and embarks on a journey backwards, from Trieste to Bangkok, in search of the origins of her family – her grandmother Rosa and her mother, Ivana, so different and yet bound together by invisible mysteries. As she goes deep down the autobiographical investigation, Alba gradually penetrates the contours of an anxiety-ridden nightmare, revealing surprising truths and unutterable ones: a ‘Mansonite’ cult – the Children of God – allegedly exploited their faith to circumvent and abuse its affiliates, especially the female ones. Alba Zari’s debut feature-length documentary is a bold film that processes grief and grapples with the constant danger of accepting and normalizing tragedy to the point where you no longer acknowledge it as such. (E.S.)