Fragments of Life
by Massimiliano Coviello
Overview
April 21, 2022
77′
Alessandro Cassigoli, Casey Kauffman
Alessandro Cassigoli, Casey Kauffman, Vanessa Picciarelli
Ang Film, La Mansarde Cinéma, Rai Cinema
Emanuele Pasquet
Alessandro Cassigoli
Giorgio Giampà
Ikram Jaafari; Khadija Jaafari; Emanuele Palumbo
Fandango
Gallery
Poster
Trailer
Representation strategies, rhetorics and stereotypes
Narrative & characters
Similar to Jonas Carpignano who in his films set in Calabria has explored the territory through stories of marginality, migration, and belonging, Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman have created a trilogy set in Campania, dedicated to the biographies of three women. Here too, the authorial gaze intertwines with a documentary attentiveness to the social and cultural context, producing intimate and realistic portraits that convey the complexity of individual trajectories within a territory marked by contradictions and resilience.
Butterfly (2019) follows Irma Testa, the first Italian female boxer to compete in the 2016 Olympics, as she confronts a period of crisis and rebirth after her defeat in Rio de Janeiro. Californie (2022) focuses on the rites of passage of Jamila, a young woman of Moroccan origin. Vittoria (2024) centers on Jasmine’s desire for motherhood and reconstructs her path through international adoption. The three most recent films by Cassigoli and Kauffman are all set in Torre Annunziata, near Naples, and share key places and figures connected to Jamila’s personal growth in Californie: the “Boxe Vesuviana” gym, where she meets her idol, champion Irma Testa, and the hair salon run by Jasmine, where she begins to work.
Californie follows the growth of Jamila (played by Khadija Jaafari) from age nine to fourteen, tracing a painful yet realistic trajectory composed of fragments that highlight the tensions between childhood and premature maturity, identity and marginality, exploitation and the desire for self-determination. Cassigoli and Kauffman accompanied Jamila over a span of five years, adopting an approach that merges documentary observation with narrative construction. The directors developed a flexible dramaturgical structure, progressively adapting it to the non-professional performers and leaving room for improvisation and contingencies.
The boxing gym becomes her first refuge: the guidance of trainer Lucio Zurlo and the presence of Irma provide an alternative to the isolation she experiences at school, the bullying from her classmates, and the difficulties of an immigrant family with limited economic resources. Yet school remains a hostile environment: at twelve she withdraws, skips classes, and begins to save money through odd jobs and small schemes. When her mother loses her job as a domestic worker because of her, Jamila is overwhelmed by guilt. Her desire to return to Morocco—initially the motivation for her savings—soon proves to be a romantic illusion: it reflects a denied integration, an identity suspended between two worlds that both seem to reject her.
At thirteen, she leaves school to work as an apprentice in a hair salon. Jasmine, the salon’s owner, shows her maternal care but at the same time imposes rhythms and expectations that ultimately curtail her freedom. Meanwhile, family bonds begin to fracture: her father finds work in Morocco, but Jamila and her sister refuse to go with him. This refusal marks the definitive break with roots she no longer feels as her own—and with the dreams of childhood.
In the final sequence, at fourteen, Jamila accepts a job as a caregiver in Cosenza. This is no longer an idealized return to origins but a conscious choice, a mature step toward a future she attempts to build on her own, with the still fragile prospect of opening a salon of her own.
Stereotypes & strategies of inclusion
Californie is structured in five chapters that mark the stages of Jamila’s growth, from age nine to fourteen. Each segment stands on its own yet is connected by a coherent narrative thread. This fragmented yet progressive rhythm reflects both the irregularity of growth and the protagonist’s emotional instability, while avoiding the classical structures of linear storytelling, based on a closed narrative arc and a clear cause-and-effect progression.
As Jamila herself states at the beginning of Californie, she arrived in Italy from Morocco with her family. She speaks little of her native language, though she understands it perfectly, and prefers to express herself in Italian and Neapolitan. She is a curious girl, living on the margins of an already peripheral context, yet unwilling to settle for the condition in which she finds herself. The entire film follows her ceaseless movement—her disorderly yet determined race to find a place, however provisional, within the world around her.
Jamila’s Gaze
Although it follows a clearly delineated trajectory of growth, Californie opens and closes with a series of mirror-like shots: Jamila, now fourteen, looks out at the sea from a distance, while the camera discreetly approaches her, maintaining a silent proximity that leaves her space to explore both the landscape and her own interiority. It is a suspended gaze, one that conveys the full complexity of an identity in transformation.
At the beginning of the film, a visual raccord takes us back in time: to the face of young Jamila in the boxing gym, training and conversing with Irma Testa. These images are taken from Butterfly and mark Jamila’s first encounter with the camera. As the directors recount «One day, during the shooting of Butterfly, a nine-year-old girl ‘crossed paths’ with our cameras and then disappeared. She had given us intense looks and a scene in which she expressed, with strength and determination, her desire to become a boxing champion. […] Within that gaze there was a whole world, a tension, a mystery, and—so we were already convinced—a story waiting to be told»
This fleeting gaze thus became the starting point of Californie: a story born out of a chance encounter in the field, and from the decision to follow it over time, with discretion and continuity.
A Crooked Word
The film’s title, Californie, originates from a mistake: it is the misspelled name on the sign of the hair salon where Jamila begins to work. Jasmine, the owner, wants to replace the sign, irritated by its inaccuracy. Jamila, however, grows attached to the flawed lettering and appreciates it precisely for its imperfection. In it she sees a possibility: “Where there is a crack, there is also light,” she says, quoting a Neapolitan saying.
This phrase aptly summarizes the relationship between the two: Jasmine represents for Jamila an ambivalent adult figure, halfway between support and control. She trusts her, entrusts her with tasks and responsibilities, yet at the same time holds her back within a reality that pushes her to grow up too quickly. Jamila finds in the salon a refuge, a sense of inclusion, and redemption from the marginalization she has suffered, especially after dropping out of school. When a social worker intervenes to oblige her to return to morning classes, the fragile balance collapses: Jamila feels compelled to leave a context in which she finally felt useful and valued.
That mistaken “Californie” is therefore more than a name: it becomes the symbol of an imperfect beauty, of a fragile yet in its own way welcoming world. A crooked word that tells of a complex relationship, and of the possibility of carving out a place of belonging even where things appear to be wrong.
Conversations
Interviewed by Vittoria Scarpa and Emanuele Basso during Giornate degli Autori at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, directors Cassigoli and Kauffman discuss the continuity between Californie and their earlier Butterfly, the relationship between dramaturgical writing and a documentary approach, the differences between Khadija’s life and the character she portrays, and the work with non-professional actors in the context of Torre Annunziata (Cineuropa, 2021).
In real life, Khadija Jaafari is first and foremost a boxer. In an interview given in 2022 to Il Riformista, she speaks with bitterness about her exclusion from the European Boxing Championships. Khadija was born in Morocco and, although she arrived in Italy at the age of eight, she has not yet obtained Italian citizenship.
She discovered boxing—like cinema—in Torre Annunziata, where she moved as a child. It was in the “Boxe Vesuviana” gym that her passion for boxing was born, along with her admiration for another champion, Irma Testa. And it was in the same gym, run by “maestro” Lucio Zurlo, that directors Cassigoli and Kauffman first encountered her.
In the interview, Khadija also reflects on her relationship with the character she plays in Californie, highlighting similarities and differences with her own biography. She further recounts her shared journey with the directors and the working method they adopted.
Business strategies and communication rhetorics
Strategies
Californie was produced by Ang Film, La Mansarde Cinéma, and Rai Cinema. The total production cost amounted to €272,945. The contribution from the Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual was €95,907.24, supplemented by an additional €26,510.63 earmarked for distribution.
Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman have collaborated since 2015. Their first joint project was The Things We Keep (Le cose che restano, 2018), followed by Butterfly (2018), the film that marked the beginning of their relationship with the territory of Torre Annunziata. Prior to their collaboration, Cassigoli directed documentaries for the ARTE network, while Kauffman worked as a reporter in the Middle East for Al Jazeera.
Californie is the second film in a trilogy set in Torre Annunziata, centered on three female stories. From the very first shots—filmed in the “Boxe Vesuviana” gym—it is evident that the film benefited from the experience gained during the making of Butterfly. It was in this very gym that the directors first encountered Khadija Jaafari: her gaze, caught by chance during filming, inspired the genesis of the film.
The character of Jamila, the protagonist of Californie, is loosely based on Khadija’s biography, yet diverges significantly on the narrative level. Whereas in real life Khadija was able to continue her studies and return to boxing after the disappointment of being denied citizenship and excluded from the European Boxing Championships, Jamila follows a more complex and painful path, marked by dropping out of school, the hardships of underage labor, and the search for autonomy.
Californie was produced over the course of five years, through short, targeted shooting sessions. The production process followed a modular and cyclical structure, articulated in several phases: initially field research, interviews, and rehearsals in real locations; then filming with the crew, followed by editing; and finally, after several months, a new session. The directors themselves describe the film as a “patchwork,” stitched together over time.
Crucial to the process were the patience and commitment of producer Damiano Ticconi, as well as the contribution of Alessia Foraggio, assistant director and casting coordinator, who facilitated the relationship with non-professional actors and with the local context. The continuous and respectful presence of the crew was positively received by the local community, beginning with Khadija herself, who recognized in the project a value not only artistic but also human and social.
Communication rhetorics
The promotional trajectory of Californie began with its premiere at Giornate degli Autori during the 78th Venice International Film Festival (2021). In 2022 the film was distributed by Fandango within the art-house circuit and in festival contexts, without the support of a mainstream campaign.
Several film criticism journals published laudatory reviews and interviews with the two directors. The latter also took part in a number of public events and discussions with audiences, particularly in theaters that actively supported the film, such as Cinema Beltrade in Milan. These occasions for dialogue reinforced the bond between the work and its intended audience.
Conversations
At Cinema Beltrade in Milan (April 29, 2022), Cassigoli and Kauffman engaged in a conversation with the audience following the screening of Californie. The two directors spoke in detail about their cinematic approach, focusing both on artistic choices and on the film’s production aspects.
Carlo Cerofolini in conversation with directors Cassigoli and Kauffman. In Taxidrivers, April 17, 2022.
«In dialogues we always tended to film them as if they were part of a documentary: when shooting we would pan from one point to another without using shot/reverse shot. Then, at a certain point, after many discussions—also with Emanuele Pasquet, the director of photography—we decided to adopt this technique [shot/reverse shot], that is, to reveal the presence of this device, relying on the fact that if the rest of the structure held, it would not appear extraneous to the context. […] In the film it seems that everything happens naturally; in reality, it is the product of weeks of rehearsals».
«The use of the 4:3 format was also related […] to the desire to exclude from the frame the alleyways, the roadside shrines, in order to remain fixed on Jamila’s face. The intention was to place her at the center of the image».
Circulation and audience responses
Circulation patterns
Italian and European Circulation
Californie was distributed in Italy by Fandango, while international distribution was handled by HBO Europe, with a particular concentration in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Specifically, the film was released in countries such as Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, as well as in several former Yugoslav republics—including Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina—in addition to Bulgaria and Moldova.
Awards and Festivals
Californie was presented at the 78th Venice International Film Festival within the Giornate degli Autori section, where it received both the Europa Cinemas Label and the BNL Award for Best Screenplay.
Over the course of 2021, the film won the Prix de la Meilleure Interprétation at Annecy Cinéma Italien, awarded to its protagonist Khadija Jaafari. It also received a Special Mention in the ReVolution section of the Festival Cinéma Méditerranéen de Bruxelles, as well as two awards at the Festival Dolce Cinema: the Prix du Jury Jeune and an additional Special Mention from the jury.
In 2022, Californie was awarded Best Film at the 15th edition of Bimbi belli – Debuts in Italian Cinema, curated by Nanni Moretti.
Reception
The Italian and international film press has analyzed Californie as a work of cinema of the real—with references to Neorealism and cinéma vérité—that effectively blends a documentary approach with fictional elements. Critics have also emphasized its continuity with the earlier Butterfly, praising the narrative and editing choices, the observational approach, and the acting abilities of Khadija Jaafari.
Italian and foreign press
Italian Press
Giovanni Spagnoletti, “Californie”, by Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman”, Close-up. Storie della visione.
«Californie is what is known as a long-term observational documentary, consisting in following one or more characters over an extended period of time. […] Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman […] here limit themselves to filming and narrating five years in the life of Jamila, who, from the age of nine, dreams of a grand future for herself, yet sees that neither her peers nor her family—struggling as best they can to get by—seem to accept her initiative and determination. Thus solitude and withdrawal into herself become her personal armor, something to be proud of, enabling her to display a verbal and combative confidence as unrealistic as it is utterly unusual for her age».
Simone Emiliani, “Californie”, MyMovies, July 28, 2021.
«If in Butterfly the story of Irma Testa gave the impression of being reconstructed, framing her face and body as those of an actress, in Californie we find glimpses of life captured, where there seems to be no distance between what is real and what is staged. Jamila is followed from nine to fourteen, in a journey of growth and the shaping of her identity […]. But above all there is the face of Khadija Jaafari, changing over the years, retaining in her eyes a restlessness that dominates the frame—so much so that Cassigoli and Kauffman chose to use the 4:3 format to underline the centrality of the protagonist».
Leonardo Lardieri, “Californie, by Alessandro Cassigoli e Casey Kauffman”, Sentieri Selvaggi, September 5, 2021.
«It is the primordial dream of cinema: to follow parallel lives, to seek out digressions that recount stories apparently innocuous, out of place, perhaps of little interest—in other words, not cinematic. And it is the eternal dream that the authors of Butterfly (2018) do not renounce: to seek, to decipher, to blur together with the reality of everyday life».
«Filmed over the span of five years, Californie is a mistake, an orthographic error, but one decidedly necessary to discover what it means to contaminate one’s own imaginary world, to fight each instant in the ring of everyday life, to improvise in order not to live forever in the idealization of a world that cannot exist. Irma Testa, the first Italian female boxer to win an Olympic medal, in Torre Annunziata made it possible to tell other stories—first and foremost, the story of a young girl who wants to follow in the footsteps of her champion, while at the same time confronting the demons of the past and of racial integration».
Giacomo Placucci, “Californie, Documentary Fable”, Cinefilia Ritrovata, April 26, 2022.
«The film’s protagonist is a product of imagination, yet the observational approach with which the two directors followed Khadija […]—seeking in her growth the trajectory of Jamila—reveals their undeniable sensitivity to human and environmental realism. The result is a hybrid work, concentrated and carefully structured, yet also restless, quick, vital: a small and deeply intimate Boyhood from a female perspective».
Lorenzo Ciofani, “Californie”, Cinematografo, September 5, 2021.
«The strength of the film lies in bringing together reconstruction and documentary, chronicle and novel, with an approach that fully situates it within the lineage of that cinema of the real which knows how to complete truth through reinvention—rebellious in spirit and not always accommodating to the audience, even as it revisits already familiar patterns».
Raffaella Mazzei, “Californie, Review: A Neorealist Tale Between Chronicle and Fiction”.
«Thus emerges a neorealist tale, one that reconstructs like a documentary yet also possesses the aesthetics of a well-crafted fiction film. Jamila is the ideal character through whom to speak of female adolescence in a specific, almost multi-ethnic context. The resulting coming-of-age narrative takes into account her Moroccan origins but also her everyday life in Torre Annunziata—whose locations, deliberately, remain only in the background».
Elisa Battistini, “Californie”, Quinlan. Rivista di critica cinematografica, September 3, 2021.
«With work comes her first crush and her first cellphone of her own—no longer borrowed from her sister—and the film is striking in the way it stages the cellphone use of today’s adolescents, living on selfies, likes, TikTok dances, further widening the disjunction between external form and deep-seated emotions with their needs. With which, however, the protagonist will eventually have to reckon».«Filmed always at Khadija/Jamila’s side, visually meticulous and naturalistic like a documentary, neorealist and harmoniously attuned to the bodies on screen, Californie does not for a single moment indulge in displaying a ‘disadvantaged context.’ It is far removed from any trace of pietism and, on the contrary, is seasoned with a good dose of (perhaps bittersweet) irony».
Foreign Press
Amy DesBrisay “Venice Film Festival 2021: Californie”, Universal Cinema. Film & Tv Journal, 9 settembre 2021.
«Cassigoli and Kauffman have previously made two award-winning documentaries together, The Things We Keep (2017) and Butterfly (2018). While Californie is their first fictional feature, they draw on their documentary experience to present the film in a vérité style, leaning on Italian neorealism to present a story that encompasses every day life and the real passage of time. There are no striking plot twists or grandiose narrative events; instead, the film focuses on more gradual developments, weaving together sequences in a natural progression. The film’s style and in particular the strength of Jaafari’s performance make the film quite compelling».
Amber Wilkinson, “Californie”, Eye For Film, 6 settembre 2021.
«Cassigoli and Kaufmann avoid major plot turns in favour of the more believable everyday things that many teenagers on the fringes encounter. The desire to make money in order to take control of her life, is an almost constant driver for Jamilla, who is always on the lookout for her next hustle but she also contends with the first potential thrill of first romance and the gradual realisation that her actions can have consequences».
J Paul Johnson, “Californie Takes a Verité Approach to Coming of Age”, Film Obsessive.
«Californie’s verité-style approach […] isn’t going to focus on dramatic speeches or confrontations, and it’s not going to rely on traditional narrative structures. There’s no obvious antagonist and no conclusive denouement. But for the length of its runtime and the full five years of the protagonist’s life it renders, Californie is, like a good number of films released across the world in recent years (the aforementioned Children of the Mist, A Chiara, Tori and Lokita, Marisol, Rodeo, Sister & Sister, Cadejo Blanco, Dry Ground Burning, Tótem, Malta) coming-of-age storytelling at its richest and most naturalistic».