The Bride

In the opening scene, we see a bride filming herself and a truck driver as they drive along a highway. Then we learn that this hitchhiker in a bridal gown has been murdered near Istanbul. So have we just seen the killer? Artist Guiseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, alias Pippa Bacca, traveled to the Middle East dressed as a bride, hoping to spread a message of peace and love. She was convinced that after a performance that would last for several months, her faith in humankind would be rewarded. Joël Curtz has made a remarkable documentary with the help of Bacca's family and close friends, and using footage the girl shot herself. When people talk about Bacca, they stress the importance of her goal and the way she went about achieving it: it's more about symbolism and human contact and less about bleak death and bitter sadness. The bride was meant to be a symbol of innocence, birth and life, but in the end Bacca was found strangled and raped. The attempts to find meaning in her death, and to see it as her destiny if need be, are at odds with her ultimate fate.