I loved it. Loved it. It's made with taste and sensibility, I feel. You'd have to ask the family.
I recently saw a bit of a true crime Netflix show about the Rosa Peral case in my country. Peral is still alive, and she's got children. As much as I love the main actress's work, I was enraged. The children are alive, and that show turned their tragedy into some spectacle. That doesn't seem like something that helps our society get better.
Per Elisa is a compassionate, family-oriented show about an older brother's obsession to bring the molester and murderer of her sister to justice, and his relentless pursuit to do so, the mental struggles that came from that, how his family did their best to stay sane and support each other and still move on with their lives. It's very, very good.
The 'bad guy' (the ill person, the person who we don't even know because his soul is buried under a whole lot of unconsciousness, compulsive drives that he probably acted out of, who was enabled by many, many people, and who was allowed to carry on until he was finally caught, instead of receiving help and some level of rehabilitation before things went from bad to worse), is an excellent portrayal of what a person like that would be like, in my opinion. The portrayal of darkness is very Japanese, in the sense that it's very human, and very intense, and very real emotions that are truly frightening to the viewer because we all know the feeling of a situation, a real-life situation, causing our hackles to rise.
Women are WAY too socially conditioned to feel uncomfortable, and to put up with that feeling. No one who's innocent falls into a hole by themselves, unfortunately society doesn't help, because we aren't taught to listen to our feelings and intuition, and to stay safe and happy and healthy above all, to surround ourselves with healthy people. None of these topics are discussed enough, especially with younger people. These things NEED to be taught in school, in my opinion. Especially young women are too often forced to be nice to people who don't feel trustworthy to them, or who don't seem healthy, but we're taught to override these insights that we feel in favour of catering to others, and so, we train ourselves more and more out of listening to our natural common sense, which includes our sense of self-preservation. Children, little, innocent, picking up on what people around them want them to do, without yet being able to make sense of the best way to act, are, of course, extremely vulnerable.
This story of course doesn't have a happy ending, but it does end in justice, we know that because it's based on real events. The actors are outstanding. The older brother, the mother, the father, the little girl and the actor who plays Danilo, whom I pray that he is able to get into an extremely healthy energy in his personal life so he gets to play the hero next time instead of the villain, are outstanding. Believable, intuitive and clearly very well trained. The younger brother, Giacomo Giorgio, the older brother's girlfriend, stand out a lot.
They made the characters look older in a way that's very believable and the passing of time is reflected beautifully in a way that doesn't break up the sense of nostalgia and unresolved hurt at all like it happens when characters have to be in costume in other shows. The hair and makeup people did an outstanding job.
The locations filming took place at are extraordinary. For someone like me who's been lucky enough to visit Italy as a child but hasn't been able to be back, and who's absorbed with her little corner of the world, seeing all of those cities in Campania, I think, a region in the North if I'm not too mistaken, has been like looking into a completely different world, even thogh I'm from a mediterranean country as well, the images are that impactful.
I wish I had more technical knowledge to be able to praise this show adequately. I watched it a long time ago, and it's still very vivid in my memory. I hope to see the actors and everyone involved in many more shows.
Yes, watch it, if you are able to! If not, it's a bookmark for the future for sure. It has a very well done resolution. Expect to want to binge it, it's not very long, and the tension can be a lot if you're sensitive, you'll want to know the whole story in one go. But if you need something to look forward to that distracts you, it may also be a great choice.
Oh, it's also VERY worth mentioning that, as far as my knowledge, this was made with complete approval and with the encouragement of the Claps family. That means a lot to me. Netflix Spain should take notes, in my opinion, and not use people's pain for show.
