A Summer Day of Restless Adolescence

Review of the short film Angelo Azzurro (My First Day of Summer)

Directed by Tommaso Acquarone, this short film’s greatest strength is its atmosphere. On a summer day at the beach, two teenage brothers set their sights on a tourist girl who might become the first experience for both of them. Through close-ups, tracking shots, and a focus on details, the film explores the adolescent world of the two brothers. We watch moments of boredom and idleness, fleeting excitement, jealousy and anger, and the other fluctuating emotions of these two boys, becoming immersed in a story that is not necessarily meant to tell us a conventional narrative so much as offer a compelling portrait of the everyday texture of adolescence.