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I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Good movie but grossly overrated

Best movie ever!

A Masterpiece!

Twice Born tells the story of interconnecting parallels stories upon one within the context of a story art. The film toggles between present-day scenes depicting the mother and son's complicated relationship and flashes of the tragic love affair between Gemma and Diego (Emile Hirsch) in the early 1990s that led to Pietro's conception. The boy's birth was the product of rather bizarre and secretive circumstances that places his biological kinship under suspicion, and the point of Gemma's trip is to reveal to him the truth about his filiation, but it turns out that she herself only knows half the story, if not less.We are then later to come in between. We then see Gemma and Diego's love is the sort that only seems possible in Europe. The beginning of their story has the gravitas of the destine-bound love at the center of Julio Medem's Lovers of the Artic Circle, but none of its focus, as Twice Born quickly turns out to be more interested in reveling in the secrets of its storyline than in its sentiments. Gemma and Diego grow apart as she discovers she can't have children and is scared that her sterility will make him chase other women. Although it does spark some chemistry and connections, the later scenes have a separate distance from one another, and it appears to feel more so all over the place. Twice Born does extend and could have been a little shorter, however there are an audience of these type of films.

As an actor, Sergio Castellito brings out the very combination of duality and simplicity; as a director, he moves his audiences by confusion and despair ever present both in human life and on screen. Based on the novel by the director's wife, Margaret Mazzantini, TWICE BORN is, above all, a display of various characters, even on the cost of the historical context of the most recent and so cruel war in Europe, the Balkan conflict of the 1990s.The New York Times reviewer A.O. Scott criticizes the movie for "missing any sense of history or politics;" David Rooney in Toronto Review observes that "the story reeks of cheap sentiment masquerading as social and political engagement" labeling it as an "overwrought and overlong melodrama;" however, what strikes us most from the very beginning are the characters - "this luckless generation" imprisoned in their 'worlds' of inner conflicts and dualities surely influenced by the very historical and political situation. The latter aspect is, to some extent, significant. Many are the victims of the conflict, the most touching one is young girl of incredible athletic abilities. But this purely political aspect remains in the background. The story is played against the backdrop of historical context and appears to serve as a manifestation of a labyrinth-like drama that life very often is.The true embodiment of this labyrinth-like drama seems to be, at first sight, the protagonist, Gemma (Penelope Cruz), a woman whose destiny is shaped not only by the nationality that represents 'freedom' to the whole context (mind you the scene when everyone is supposed to say the most important word for them) but also by all the people around her, in particular Diego (Emile Hirsch) and 'her son' Pietro (Pietro Castellito), a neurotic character with notes of coming of age drama. Excellent vitality to the story is contributed by her old friend Gojco (Adnan Haskovic) and a Bosnian woman Aska (Saadet Aksoy). Thanks to them, the movie almost bursts out with emotions. It is sometimes overwhelming and sometimes terribly confusing how we, as viewers, discover the motives that govern the characters. The story, built primarily on flashbacks and sometimes even flashbacks within flashbacks, occurs to manifest the blending past and presence in order to keep a viewer alert and supply the desirable tension.The performances of the cast of quite multinational backgrounds appear to be very well fit to the tension of the drama. Penelope Cruz, having already played under Castellito's direction in DON'T MOVE, portrays a rather sullen character of a mother amidst the ruins of conflicts and war. She also depicts a character of interesting choices, especially as a wife. Closer to the end we get, more need for display of emotions there is, and Ms Cruz handles that with exceptional vitality and subtlety. One of the most powerful scenes of the movie is her reunion with Aska, actually, a biblical "Hagar-like" substitute mother... Emile Hirsch underlines some interesting aspects of his character as well, being particularly convincing and absorbing at the psychologist scene. There, you get the essence of who the couple are...another fine manifestation of the past hidden within the walls of subconsciousness. Aska, in that case, is a highlight.Interesting music score, striking cinematography by Gianfilippo Corticelli, production designing by Francesco Frigeri contribute to the pluses of the movie's influence on the senses. Violence, however, seems to create tension of moments in a flawed manner. The scenes of war cruelty or the rape ae depicted in a too graphic way excluding any hints of deduction. From the short scenes of pregnant Aska or the very birth give a slight undertone of viewers' supposing conclusions that Diego is not the father. Nevertheless, not being prepared for any facts, you may be taken with some moments, especially Diego's insane behavior facing the protesters.After all, TWICE BORN is worth seeing as a highly emotional screen production. What can a man be amidst the roar of hatred? What can human voice for peace be? Merely a glimpse of a moment like a dove that carries a brighter message? We cannot skip that moment; we must give him time and moment to speak up...

Margaret Mazzantini's very popular novel 'Venuto Al Mundo' (English translation 'brought into the world') has been transformed into a screenplay by the author assisted by the director (her husband) Sergio Castellitto, the film in English is now called TWICE BORN. It is complex story, beautifully sculpted with interlocking flashbacks that cover a 30 year period, photographed with great skill by Gianfilippo Corticelli, and a cast that makes this carefully integrated story of varying timeframes work splendidly. Much of the film's beauty is in the complexity of the manner in which the story develops and revealing too much of that story would spoil the experience for new viewers. Very basically the story relates a mother who brings her teenage son to Sarajevo, where his father died in the Bosnian conflict years ago. But more needs to be added.Italian professor Gemma (Penélope Cruz) visits Sarajevo with her son, Pietro (Pietro Castellitto, son of the writer and director). The two of them had escaped the city sixteen years ago while the boy's father, photographer Diego (Emile Hirsch) remained behind and later died during the Bosnian War. As she tries to repair her relationship with Pietro, Gemma is forced by revelations to face loss, the cost of war and the redemptive power of love. She re-acquaints with her dear friend Gojco (Adnan Haskovic) and together they relive the horrifying experiences of the war in Sarajevo, Gemma's attempt to provide her beloved Diego with a son (she is sterile), the eventual plan to have Diego use musician gypsy-type Aska (Saadet Aksoy) as a surrogate for the couples much desired child, and the consequences that plan takes on, leading to a series of identity crises that the now older Gemma must face with her teenaged son Pietro. The story is structured on alternate scenes from the trip taken in present in Bosnia by Gemma and her son and flashbacks from the two time periods (of the first encounter and the war), a technique that at times is difficult to follow but that definitely enhances the tension of the story.The cast is extraordinary: Penelope Cruz is dazzling, Emile Hirsch gives his most sensitive performance of his career, and Adnan Haskovic, Saadet Aksoy and Luca da Filippo (as Gemma's father) are outstanding. This is a difficult film in message but a profoundly moving drama. Highly Recommended. In English, Italian, and Bosnian. Grady Harp

This time the translation in Hebrew got it right, following the original Italian title which says 'Come to the world' rather than the English title 'Twice Born'. The film is indeed about bringing children to the a world in conflict, and it's a powerful love story taking place during one of the most tragic and absurd war in Europe in the 20th century (but what war is not absurd?), a war that placed one against the other neighbors and friends who were the same blood and spoke the same language, the differences being buried back in history, mostly of religious origins. 'The best stories are sometimes the weird ones' tells one of the characters, and this is indeed a strange and a complicated, but also a very emotional love story taking place in tragic circumstances.The story alternates between the time today, the period back 30 years ago when Communist Yugoslavia still existed and Sarajevo was known to the world as the location of the 1984 Winter Olympics, and the city 10 years later when it became the battle place in one of the most bloody episodes of the ethnic wars in the Balkans. It tells about the obsessive falling in love of two young and idealistic 'western' professionals Gemma and Diego (Penelope Cruz and Emile Hirsch) who happen to meet in Bosnia, then part of Yugoslavia, attracted there mostly by the original culture of the Balkans and by its people. They soon meet a group of mostly young and idealistic artists of the same kind who seem to live happily, aiming to create and make their world better. For much of the first half the story focuses on the love story of the couple, and the hurdles they meet on the road (they cannot have a child of their own). And then war breaks in this area which was not only the crossroad of the empires, but also their battlefield. The empires are gone, but the conflicts continues perpetuated by religion and by politicians. The world of the heroes blows apart.The story is structured on alternate scenes from the trip taken in present in Bosnia by Gemma and her son and flashbacks from the two time periods (of the first encounter and the war). I liked the way director Sergio Castellitto kept perfect balance between the love story, the descriptions of the falling of Bosnia into war and the war itself, and the coming to age of the son (the directors own son Pietro Castellitto acting) – all three threads are clear, articulate, and conclude in a way that makes sense. To the excellent acting of Cruz and Hirsch I need to add the name of the Bosnian actor Adnan Haskovic who is playing the colorful and passionate Gojco, their friend of blood.The conflict in Bosnia, and the wars in the former Yugoslavia already generated many films, some of them good, including the ones produced by artists from the area themselves. 'Venuto al mondo' is a co-production, mostly made in Italy, with local participation. It will probably stay as one of the solid and sensible films made about those mad years. This is a film which will also stay with all these who will have the chance to see it.