Le pupille (The Pupils) is a 2022 short film (37 minutes) from Italy directed by Alice Rohrwacher.
It is set at a Catholic girls' boarding school in Italy at Christmastime during World War II, in 1940-42. Although one girl leaves to spend the holiday with her family, most of the children are apparently orphans and the school is effectively an orphanage. Times are tough with wartime food shortages. The kids at the school put on a Nativity tableau in which parishioners come to ask for prayers; the donations the parishioners give are a vital supplement to the school's limited supply of food.
An upper-class woman brings a fancy custard cake (which everyone calls "English soup") as an offering to the kids in the Christmas tableau. The kids, who aren't exactly starving but definitely aren't overfed, look at the cake hungrily, but Mother Superior Fioralba gets the bright idea to offer the cake up to the bishop as a present, in hopes of getting more money for the school. This decision does not work out.
Tropes:
- Big "SHUT UP!": Sister Fioralba reacts to seeing the kids singing and dancing to a pop song by screaming "STOP!" Or, in Italian, "FERMATEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
- Brick Joke: Sister Fioralba grossly overreacts to the kids singing along to a song on the radio, making them wash their mouths out with soap. Later, as Sister Fioralba and another nun commiserate about how they're running low on food and other essentials, they mention being out of soap.
- Call-Back: Mean, super-strict Sister Fioralba overreacts to little Serafina having memorized the lyrics to the pop song, calling her "wicked". This pays off later, when Sister Fioralba is badgering the girls to give up their cake. She challenges all the good girls to stand up as a signal that they're willing to give up cake, but Serafina doesn't stand up. When asked why, Serafina says that she isn't a good girl, because the Mother Superior called her wicked.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The workers seen on the roof in the opening scene. Later, their foreman comes in and demands payment. Since Sister Fioralba does not have the money to pay them, she instead gives them the cake.
- Creative Closing Credits: Creative opening credits, which appear as writing on a notepad, while also being read out loud by the children.
- Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: After Sister Fioralba throws open the blinds, there's a montage of the girls' pupils constricting as they're suddenly subject to bright light.
- Double-Meaning Title: The kids are students aka "pupils" at the school/orphanage, but there's also a montage of their pupils constricting to light when Sister Fioralba opens the blinds.
- Establishing Character Moment: The kids are outside, laughing and giggling, when Mother Superior Fioralba barks "I want you in order! Two by two!", before leading them inside. She's established as severe and strict.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
- Greek Chorus: At the beginning and again at the end, the girls form a choir commenting on the action. They are actually singing a letter apparently sent by a grown-up Serafina telling the story.
- Heartwarming Orphan: Serafina, a cute little girl with big
Moe eyes and also an orphan at an orphanage on Christmas, who wants nothing more than a piece of cake. After demanding the cake she winds up throwing it to the stray dog that has been skulking about. - Hitler Ate Sugar: The girls complain about having to pose in a very chilly church at midnight for the Nativity scene. Sister Fioralba (who to be fair knows that the school badly needs the offerings from parishioners) says that if they go to Hell it will be very warm there.
- One-Gender School: A Catholic school/orphanage for girls during World War II.
- Soap Punishment: Sister Fioralba catches the kids singing along with a song on the radio with the lyric "Kiss me, baby, on my little mouth." She washes their tongues with soap.
- Stern Nun: Mother Superior Fioralba doesn't quite rise to the level of "evil" but is certainly strict, bossing the kids around, strong-arming them into giving up their Christmas cake, and calling Serafina "wicked" for just remembering the lyrics to the pop song.
- Tableau: The orphans put on a Nativity scene, in which they strike static poses as angels, shepherds, Wise Men, and the baby Jesus, everybody except Mary and Joseph who are played by nuns. This is expected by the parishioners, who come by at midnight to make special prayers, and it is also a big deal for the school, as Sister Fioralba is counting on the money and food they're supposed to get to stretch their inadequate supplies.
- Trashcan Bonfire: A trashcan bonfire is burning outside the church, demonstrating how the privations of war are hitting home to Italy.
- Visual Title Drop: A montage of the girls' pupils constricting as Sister Fioralba opens the blinds to their bedroom in the morning.
- Voiceover Letter: A sung voiceover letter. The girls of the school sing a letter from grown-up Serafina, obviously many years in the future, telling the story of one particular wartime Christmas at the orphanage.
- White and Gray Morality: The orphan girls are of course sympathetic, especially when they are gazing hungrily at the cake but agreeing to give it up under Mother Superior Fioralba's pressure. For her part, Sister Fioralba is generally cast as unsympathetic, barking orders at the children, threatening them with the fires of Hell if they don't do the Nativity scene, washing their mouths out with soap. But it's also clear that her intention in donating the cake is really to curry favor with the bishop in order to get more money and provisions for the school, after the returns from the Nativity scene donations are disappointing.
