Girls, Uninterrupted

Valentina and Nicole Bertani's Le Bambine (Mosquitoes) begins uncommonly with one of the main characters, Eva (Clara Tramontano), swatting a mosquito, who appears to have come all the way to her room as though looking out just for her.

- NAMRATA JOSHI

How can a creature so small disturb so badly with its buzzing sound, she asks her 8-year-old daughter Linda (Mia Ferricelli). Eva has decided to leave her wealthy mother's Swiss villa to spend the summer in Ferrara, Italy, with Linda in tow.

It sets the stage for the world of Mosquitoes, which might broadly be called a coming-of-age tale about three girls—Linda and her Italian friends Azzurra (Agnese Scazza) and Martha (Petra Scheggia)—but is essentially all about the adults around them who are in urgent need of growing up. While the three girls are mature enough to understand their freedom, rights, and responsibilities, the grown-ups are childish. They haven't come to terms with themselves, their ambitions and desires, and what they expect of themselves in life. They might informally refer to children as little pests, but they are more of an annoyance themselves. It's they who are the irritating mosquitoes here.