Manuel (film)

The film was well-received by critics. Panorama's film critic Claudio Trionfera described it as "a precious little film of Pasolinian echoes".^[3] Julien Gester from Libération wrote: "the film navigates the codes of the initiation story with a stroke of sharp realism, churning out false leads and figures, all tenderly sketched".^[4] Le Parisien film critic Marine Quinchon referred to it as an "austere, almost monotonous film, yet traversed by beautiful moments".^[5]

Fabien Lemercier from Cineuropa offered high praise for Albertini, "sensitive and attentive to the slightest inflections of his protagonist’s sweet melancholic face", whose "well-controlled style gives the film a delicate charm and a rough authenticity, a mixture that is a testament to its undeniable cinematic qualities".^[2] Boris Sollazzo from Rolling Stone Italia wrote: "Albertini composes a rough and beautiful symphony, embeds the images in music and noises, the actors in the reality of a real and vivid suburb, the writing within a visual path that fishes from documentary filmmaking, without ever losing the taste for storytelling and choice of field and a vision that is never ideological".^[6]

The film won the Best Film Award, the Critics' Prize and the Student Jury Prize at the Montpellier Film Festival, the Jury Award at the Brussels International Film Festival , the FIPRESCI Award at the Gijón International Film Festival, and the award for best actor (Andrea Lattanzi) at the Angers European First Film Festival.^[2][7] For this film, Albertini was nominated for Nastro d'Argento for Best New Director.^[8]

• Manuel at IMDb