This unexpectedly beguiling Italian drama stars comedian Nanni Moretti as Pietro, an executive who finds himself strangely calm after the sudden death of his wife. He’s further unnerved by the coolness with which his young daughter accepts the loss. His gently flipped-out attentiveness to the child’s spiritual recovery lies at the heart of the film. Such honest confrontation of emotional disconnection owes something to the classic 60s Italian portraits of urban alienation, but there’s faith at work here in the mysterious power of humour, familiarity and shared experience to bring a community together.

“This is a mesmerising, moving and also wryly humorous film... Quiet Chaos benefits enormously from the interplay between the magnificent cast, with Moretti providing a thoughtful, complex and brilliantly realised performance at its centre, as a decent, bewildered man trying to piece his life back together... Unsurprisingly a huge hit in Italy, this is admirable, adult, intelligent movie making.” — Adrian Wootton, London Film Festival

“The spectre of an emotional meltdown, Shadowlands style, hangs over the movie like a threatening storm cloud. And yet, miraculously, it never breaks. Bar some hastily shed tears in the front seat of his BMW, Paladini is denied that Hollywoodian catharsis that defines so many grief movies. Instead, the writer-star Moretti and his director, Antonio Grimaldi, build a devastating portrait of a man mildly estranged from his daughter yet completely out of touch with his own humanity.” — Kevin Maher, The Times

“Lightly directing a top-notch cast in some of the peak performances of their careers, Grimaldi creates a world of convincingly problematic characters around Pietro, played with charismatic naturalness by Moretti. Also of note is the film’s finely balanced music track, incorporating songs by Radiohead, Rufus Wainwright, and Stars with Paolo Buonvino’s subtle original score.” — Deborah Young, Tribeca Film Festival

“[Quiet Chaos] will inevitably be compared to The Son’s Room, not least thanks to Nanni Moretti’s presence here as lead, but the current offering is a gentler, deceptively simple drama looking at life as much as death. Beautifully modulated, fluidly told, [the] film expresses pain with warm understatement... The screenplay co-authored by Moretti – and the Sandro Veronesi novel it’s based on – are welcome reminders of a thoughtful yet emotional maturity existing in Italian literature all too often absent from movie screens.” — Jay Weissberg, Variety