Wishing on a Star

Whether or not you believe in astrology, odds are you’ve sneaked a peak at your horoscope at least once or twice.

Inside a crumbling castle called Aiello del Friuli, situated in a quaint town not too far from the Venetian Lagoon, lives 63-year-old Luciana de Leoni d’Asparedo, a Neapolitan astrologer with a very special technique.

For their wishes to come true, all Luciana’s clients — women looking for love, confused teens, and entrepreneurs on the verge of mental breakdowns, among others — need to do is take a special trip on their birthdays in order to be reborn under a new sky. By triangulating latitudes, longitudes, and ephemerides on maps, the destination — whether Beirut, Cres, or Taipei — is chosen by Luciana, whose role is partly that of an esoteric strategist and partly that of a travel agent (with her eye on the best offers available on Skyscanner). Meanwhile, the aging astrologer has her own struggles, doubts, and desires, and, like all of us, wishes of her own.

For his sixth feature film, which is full of star-crossed charm and earthly delights, veteran filmmaker and master of the hybrid form Péter Kerekes brilliantly combines the cinematic feel of a fiction film with cleverly captured real emotions from real people. With an emphasis on coincidence, which plays as significant a role in his film as it does in life, Wishing on a Star is a journey into the human soul, the cosmos, and beyond.

DOROTA LECH