Paternal Leave is charming and heartbreaking at the same time. It’s the debut feature written and directed by Alissa Jung.
Pretty Flamingo
by Alexa DalbyPaternal Leave
4.0 out of 5.0 starsCAUTION: Here be spoilers
Triggered by a clip she saw online, 15-year-old Leo (superb debut by Juli Grabenhenrich) travels alone from Germany to Italy to find the biological father she has never known. At first it is disappointing surprise visit for her. Paolo (Luca Marinelli) is not the dashing Italian surfer dude he appeared to be online. In fact, though likeable, he’s a bit of a shiftless asshole. He lives in a run-down cafe in a bleak out-of-season seaside resort in an industrial area of northern Italy. And she wasn’t expecting that he was married (to understanding but uncomprehending Valeria, Gaia Rinaldi) though separated, and had another daughter, endearing little Emilia (Joy Falletti Cardillo).
Leo, short for Leonora, (who looks as though she has adopted a boyish name and identity) arrives armed with a hostile list of questions for her father about her origin. But apart from not knowing each other, these two strangers don’t even speak the same language: they can only communicate in the English they share and in which Paolo is not fluent. Can they come to some accommodation?
Leo, lonely in the small village, is befriended by another unhappy teen – Eduardo (Arturo Gabbriellini, We Are Who We Are), a local boy who thinks he may be gay. They bond more quickly than Leo and her father. They both have Catholic fathers who don’t understand their alternative nature and can explode against them.
Leo buys Emilia the inflatable flamingo she covets. Eventually she and her father grow to understand each other more when he gives her a lift to the station to return home in his camper van past the lake of real-life flamingoes nearby, when he accidentally runs one over.
Paternal Leave is an emotional coming of age film made more intense by the excellent acting of Juli Grabenhenrich as a determined, adrift 15-year-old trying to find her own path.
Paternal Leave had its world premiere at the Berlinale in 2025. International representation is by The Match Factory.
