Happy as Lazzarro

Two very different men form a connection in Alice Rohrwacher’s charming comedy/drama set in Italy. The winner of best screenplay at Cannes, the film blends social drama and time travel in this movie set in the past and present. It centres on the title character, a young and optimistic sharecropping farmer working on a tobacco plantation, who builds an unlikely bond with a rebellious aristocrat, Tancredi. Exploiting Lazarro’s benign nature, Tancredi recruits his aid in an unlikely task.