After touring the festival circuit and sweeping the hearts of many movie goers, Tulipani – Love, Honour and a Bicycle finally makes its way into theatres to claim more adoration from audiences.

Using a nesting doll of flashbacks within stranger-than-fiction framework, Tulipani expands on memories passed through inheritance.  Special moments are pieced together by whimsical stories of fate and romance from the perspective of a Dutch farmer (Gijs Naber) taking refuge in the comfort of a small Italian village.  He becomes an integral part of the quaint community, and gains notoriety with his workmanship and his kindhearted reputation;  leading to heroic gestures when standing up to local crooks.  Years later, his legacy is told to a Canadian woman (Ksenia Solo) who visits Puglia to honour her recently-deceased mother by returning her ashes to her homeland.  However, in order to explain herself to the police after a wickedly bizarre incident, the woman recounts this newly explored family history.

The layered narrative may read as convoluted, but director Mike Van Diem does an immaculate job balancing three timelines in a manner that is both digestible and differentiated, all while tying them together in a satisfying conclusion.  Tulipani – Love, Honour and a Bicycle plays with the same ambition and imagination as Amélie and Big Fish did – it’s on par with those classics – and it naturally attracts viewers with charming stories, good humour, picturesque landscapes, and a perfectly-cast ensemble that completely commits to the film’s enchantment.

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Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie