Damiano Michieletto's 'Primavera' Brings Tiziano Scarpa's Novel to the Screen

Damiano Michieletto's debut fiction film 'Primavera', freely adapted from Tiziano Scarpa's 2008 Strega Prize-winning novel 'Stabat Mater', premieres in Italian cinemas on December 25, 2025, distributed by Warner Bros. Discovery. Set in 18th-century Venice against a backdrop of war, the film follows Cecilia (Tecla Insolia), an abandoned girl growing up in a repressive institution, who finds a form of liberation through music under the guidance of a new maestro, Antonio Vivaldi (Michele Riondino). The screenplay by Ludovica Rampoldi reimagines the novel's epistolary interiority into cinematic form, with music functioning as language and friction rather than mere accompaniment. Michieletto deliberately avoids sentimental tropes, presenting the relationship between Cecilia and Vivaldi as one of respectful distance—teacher and student, two solitudes that touch without merging. Cinematographer Daria D'Antonio employs natural, unglamorous light to let bodies and spaces breathe. The director states, 'Art has nothing to teach and does not constitute salvation,' rejecting any redemptive rhetoric. The title alludes both to Cecilia's age and to a symbolic season of possibility and rebellion that promises movement, not happiness. The film is produced by Margherita Bordino for Artribune.