Gloria! | Gloria!
Director | Margherita Vicario
Written and directed by dynamic Italian actress and singer Margherita Vicario, GLORIA! depicts the ebullient, music-fuelled story of an overlooked maid at a Venetian orphanage whose hidden talent helps inspire an uprising.
2024 | 106 min | Comedy | Italy | Italian with English subtitles
CAST | Galatéa Bellugi, Carlotta Gamba, Veronica Lucchesi, Maria Vittoria Dallasta, Sara Mafodda, Paolo Rossi, Elio, Vincenzo Crea, Natalino Balasso, Anita Kravos, Jasmin Mattei
1800. Mute Teresa (rising star Galatéa Bellugi, The Taste of Things) is a servant at Venice’s Sant Ignazio College, a religious institution for girls overseen by stern priest Perlina (Paolo Rossi). Tasked with only the most menial of duties, Teresa is punished for any form of transgression, but observes the orphanage orchestra from the sidelines, and yearns to take part.
When news arrives of an imminent visit by the newly enthroned Pope, the college is thrown into chaos. With Perlini distracted by the struggle of writing a new Baroque composition to mark the occasion, Teresa finds a hidden piano in the storeroom. Soon, she and a quartet of students begin secretly gathering each night to take turns on the instrument, their ecstatic clandestine sessions quickly setting them on a new path…
Celebrating the lives of the many Italian women written out of the margins of music history, this joyous and uplifting film will speak to anyone who has felt restrained or silenced by the system. GLORIA! dares you not to stamp your feet in solidarity.
One would need a tough skin not to be won over by the mischievous musical anachronism at the heart of 'Gloria!' and the chemistry of the young female cast that delivers it.
Margherita Vicario
Margherita Vicario (born in Rome in 1988) is an actress, singer-songwriter and filmmaker. During her academic years at the European Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome she produced her debut album as a singer-songwriter Minimal Musical.
IIn 2014, whilst acting in films and television series’, Margherita also toured clubs and theatres with her first concert show LEM - Free Musical Experiments.
Pursuing careers as both actress and musician, she released her second album Bingo in 2021. Margherita works with artists such as Francesco Guccini, Vasco Brondi, Elodie, Rancore and many others. In 2023, Margherita directed Gloria! her first feature film, co-writing the screenplay with Anita Rivaroli and the music with Davide Pavanello.