Interview with SPENCER MAGAZINE

by Steve Pryce

ROAD to the LEMON GROVE

The film ‘Road to the Lemon Grove’ brings an intimate look at its creators’ understanding of their own history. Co-written by its star Charly Chiarelli, musician and story-teller, and Dale Hildebrand, a highly experienced maker of films for cinema and television, its ninety-something minutes addresses the reality of growing up and living as an adult in an expatriate community – in this case, the Sicilian diaspora of greater Toronto.

Not content with his first feature co-write, Chiarelli plays multiple roles in his first feature as an actor. As Calogero, an established Canadian academic, the ghost of his recently-deceased father Antonio (also Chiarelli) requires him to return his father’s ashes, hence to the lemon grove in Sicily that he left behind to build a new life in Canada.

Ghostly father and son travel through Sicily together, bantering the differences that still remain between them. As a much-younger Antonio, Chiarelli appears in a flashback to the 1950s; he frequently breaks the fourth wall as narrator, then goes on to play a minor character in Sicily. Chiarelli’s versatility in his first feature film is impressive. Lemon grove is very much a vehicle for Chiarelli, but the ensemble Italo-Canadian cast all put in worthy performances. Italy’s prima ballerina, Rosella Brescia, makes a beguiling movie premiere (never apparently so) as an actress tired of paparazzi attention; Nick Mancuso plays a rare comedic role.

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Article Link: https://spencer-magazine.com/road-to-the-lemon-grove