AMC+ Italian dystopian coming-of-age drama Anna is surprising and surprisingly moving, but it might be too dark for some
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"Anna is a hard sell in a number of ways, but I’m going to try it anyway," says Daniel Fienberg. "Niccolò Ammaniti’s adaptation of his postapocalyptic novel is harrowing stuff, a frequently nightmarish story about kids that definitely isn’t made for kids, one that evokes despair with an intensity that sets it apart from other recent pandemic dramas. At the same time, Anna is filled with hope and wonderment. It’s a show of outlandish whimsy and emotional courage, and when it works, it borders on remarkable. And once I describe it to you, chances are good that you’re going to decide it’s nothing you want to go anywhere near." He adds: "The series, which can be best described as Beasts of the Southern Wild with a virus in place of the film’s hinted-around flooding, begins as something narratively loose and dreamlike, becoming increasingly sad and scary as it follows its heroine’s folkloric journey. Stripped of the trappings of society, the children prove monstrous in different ways. Anna faces down the likes of a set of ghoulish twins (Danilo and Dario Di Vita), who leverage the supplies in their dead father’s grocery store for corrupted power, and the spoiled princess (Clara Tramontano) with a love for reality TV who creates a hierarchy of underlings delineated by blue and white paint. With all these origin stories linked to the tragic deaths of parents — some shown in graphic terms — the Disney influences are clear even before Anna encounters three girls who go around dressed like Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and Snow White. As pure a piece of television magic realism as you’ll see this side of The Underground Railroad, Anna walks a delicate line between overexplaining the details of its apocalypse and leaving certain details to the viewer’s imagination." ALSO: Anna has a dreaminess, and a willingness to proceed by a haphazard kind of dream logic, that’s uncommon in episodic TV.
