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Italian writer/director Saverio Costanzo (Private) penetrates the enclosed world of a Jesuit seminary in In Memory Of Me, an absorbing and atmospheric account of a trainee priest's novitiate. The handsome Andrea (Christo Zhirko) is a new recruit at an all-male religious community on a island across from Venice. Under the watchful eye of his Master Superior (Andre Hennicke), he immerses himself in the daily routines of prayers, scripture reading and contemplation, yet serious doubts about his chosen vocation soon surface.

"Who am I and why have I come here?", ponders Andrea, and it's to Costanzo's credit that the story doesn't fall back on glib answers to these fundamental questions. Certainly a mood of mystery pervades the dream-like In Memory Of Me: conversations between the novices, even at mealtimes, are discouraged, and they are taught by their elders in bible classes to conceal their feelings. The emphasis throughout is on the looks and glances exchanged by the characters whilst they attempt to "lose themselves" before God. Andrea himself becomes drawn to the troubled Fausto (Fausto Russo Alesi), and then to another outspoken fellow trainee Zanna (Filippo Timi), a man of instinctive faith.

"IMPOSING SETTING OF THE SEMINARY"

The imposing setting of the seminary is integral to the power of In Memory Of Me. Costanzo uses numerous shots, taken at different times of day and night, of the high-ceilinged central corridor and its rows of identical cells, to both anchor the story and to suggest Andrea's unconscious. Where the film falls short however, is that it lacks a dramatically satisfying ending, resolving its protagonist's spiritual predicament with abrupt ease.

In Memory Of Me is out in the UK on 9 November 2007.