The debut film of writer/director Alice Rohrwacher, Corpo Celeste is about 13-year-old Marta (Yle Vianello) as she adapts to life in a small Southern Italian town ahead of her confirmation. A reflective, cerebral, and patient film, it examines the effects of Catholicism on both a struggling community and on maturing youths, as well as exploring the personal journey of a girl dealing with her own burgeoning adolescence.

Corpo Celeste opens in selected cinemas this weekend, but we spoke to Rohrwacher when she visited for the UK premiere of the film at the London Film Festival.

What drew you to this story for your first film ?

I’ve never directed even a short film before, let alone a feature film, so the approach for myself and my producer Carlo Cresto-Dino was to start questioning how Italian society has changed. It has undergone a very deep transformation in the last 20 years. The research focused eventually on the idea of the parish church and catechism teaching of the scriptures, and those who teach this religious doctrine. When we had enough material we thought of narrating all we’d gathered through the experience of one person.

In the film Marta is very quiet - she observes everything but she doesn’t interact with much. Was that a conscious decision and what were you trying to accomplish through it?

Marta is at an age where you need to choose who you belong to. You look at others as models. You’re trying to figure out how to fit into a group of people. It’s a phase of life where you observe before you make a decision and then you take up a position. I wanted to tell a story about that age. She’s non-judgemental: she goes to the confirmation classes and looks at her peers with surprise. They’re mysterious to her. She isn’t rebellious. When she understands that she doesn’t fit in, she doesn’t enter into this group, she just leaves and goes away.

She rejects the church ultimately, but it’s not a thesis or a PhD. It’s a story of a few weeks in the life of a young girl becoming an adult. We didn’t want to be confined to the problems that exist within the church but use it as a ground, to ask questions more than to give answers.

You began your career making documentaries. Do you approach fiction differently and are there things that you’ve taken from documentary that you apply to the process?

From documentaries I learnt a lot because you have to do it all on your own. You have to do the research, shoot it, edit it, you have to even do the advertising. You really get fit: you get muscles from it. Also when you approach reality as a documentary filmmaker you absolutely need to understand what is your point of view in relation to that reality. So it’s a very good school.

However, I haven’t just learnt from documentaries, I have a background in theatre and music which is as important. In Italy you see a great divide between cinema and all the other arts. I was very lucky because I’ve worked in theatre, for the radio, in music and documentaries, so I learned to communicate in different fields. In music I learned you have to be able to work in a team - on your own you do not exist. From theatre I learned to trust the actor and their performance so that it’s integral and organic, and also about the value of rehearsing, which is something that you wouldn’t have in cinema.

Do you feel your relative youth helped you connect with the story?

I dislike talking in terms of gender, male and female, young and old. I think each experience has its own value. I am younger than the average Italian filmmaker, and this has negative and positive aspects. In terms of the positive, you have nothing to lose. You can really throw yourself in and take risks. You’re more free. But everything is a bit more black and white at this age, maybe.

In a recent interview promoting the release of The Muppets, Jason Segal pointed out the difference between CGI and the real world. “You could touch Kermit; he exists in our world. You could potentially meet Kermit. But you’ll never meet Shrek; he lives in a computer”.

The inability to comprehend this is what doomed Aardman Animations’ 2006 film Flushed Away, their first flop. Flushed Away’s character designs were created in the same style as Wallace, Gromit, or any number of electricity-promoting animals, but somehow it just didn’t feel the same. There was one key difference: its characters didn’t really exist.

Aardman failed to understand that the appeal of their films wasn’t just their character design or their distinctly British comedic sensibility, but also the comfort engendered by their tangible, Plasticine world. It isn’t that Wallace is endearingly befuddled and Gromit is endearingly put-upon, but that they’re actually there; if you look carefully you can see the thumbprints of their creators. Regardless of whether the pair were present in your childhood or not, they speak to it. Aardman’s work is fundamentally nostalgic, which is why it can only properly work if it’s rendered through stop-motion. It isn’t meant to be cutting edge, or modern, or in any way fashionable.

Thankfully, massive financial failure taught Aardman the error of its ways, and the result is The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! The film feels like it could have been made at any time in Aardman’s history, and that’s the point. While it leans on its plot a little too hard when it should be content to just spend time with its wonderfully silly characters, it’s still a spirited, bright, lovely film. Like all of Aardman’s best work, The Pirates! is unafraid to be itself, however largehearted or harebrained that may be.

Watching the film, you feel the desire for it to be successful because it absolutely deserves to. Even if you wish it could be just a little bit better (and feature a little less Charles Darwin), there is something very comforting about the fact that it was made and exists and is something that you can see in a cinema, thumbprints and all.

The other week, we got a package through the post from Lord Whitney. We love receiving post, and this time it was a catalogue full of particularly curious set designs and arrangements of objects, just like this Spirit Bird.

It's the work of Amy Lord and Rebekah Whitney: the duo make installations for festivals, photo-shoots and many other things. We met Lord Whitney for a coffee on their way to the wonderful Pick Me Up illustration exhibition. We wondered what took their eye at the show, and asked them to tell us their highlights from the day.

Here are Lord Whitney's Pick Me Up best bits:

Kibbo Kift. The first late night at Pick Me up was hosted by Kibbo Kift, and it was a night of art, poetry and music. Our highlight was undoubtedly the curious and surreal poems of Matthew the Horse: an incredibly funny and talented linguist.  

Peepshow Collective's Museum of Objects & Origins. There's an artist in residence at Pick Me Up, and this year's is Peepshow Collective. They created a curious museum-esque collection housing arrays of artefacts from drawings, objects, prints and costumes. From the colourful characters of Chrissie Macdonald, to the graphic prints of Luke Best, this collective present an absolute feast for the eyes.

Sarah Maycock. We were blown away by the beautiful work of Sarah Maycock. Her painterly illustrations are created with some of the most exquisite mark-making we've seen. She's an extremely talented young illustrator. 

A Two Pipe Problem. We're big fans of traditional making techniques so fell head over heels in love with the work of Stephen Kenny's A Two Pipe Problem. Mixing traditional letterpress with a hint of magic, his prints have a timeless quality.

Kristjana S Williams

An opulent mix of Victorian prints, bright colours and gold leafing make the work of Kristjana S Williams a fantasy world we'd love to loose ourselves in. 

We always get excited when a writer from oh comely has a book published. Jane Flett's atmospheric pieces for the magazine have included Follow Your Feet and The Place Where I Am Happy. Now she has a book of poetry out: Quick, To The Hothouse.

She says, "For a mere $7 you get 19 poems about cowgirls, kissing, dandelions, Eyjafjallajoekull, Lee Hazelwood/rope burns on a Sunday morning, and the Glasgow subway system." She also promises to buy you a pint. Or maybe that was just us.

In oh comely Issue eight we had three Diana F+ Lomography cameras to giveaway. For a chance to win one, we asked you to send in a photograph that suprised you.

We received many wonderful entries and below are some of our favourites. The last photo is a little gruesome so if you're squeamish, don't scroll far down.

Photo by Emma: 'I took this photo when I was seven or eight, on a visit to a sheep farm. It was dark so the flash went off, but at the time I didn't know what effect flash had when photographing eyes. I've liked this photograph enough to keep it for nearly ten years and it still makes me smile.'

Photo by Esmee: 'This cyclist came out of nowhere on a super sunny day in Hossegor, France. I think it makes my otherwise happy-chappy friend look quite sinister.'

Photo by Heather: 'I took this photograph in St. Ives, Cornwall on my New Years visit down. Walking on the front of St. Ives, I noticed this little crowd of birds, all huddled on the steps. It was particularly windy and they were sat watching the waves roll in over the sand. When one came crashing their way, they would dodge aside before returning to their spot on the steps. I think they were enjoying themselves just as much as we were watching them.'

Photo by Louise: 'This is Cliffords Tower in York. I think it looks beautiful and evokes Summer perfectly, with washed-out and dreamy soft colours.'

Photo by Ruth of The Isle of Dogs, London.

Photo by Emma: 'We were on our way back from a night out and found this cat in the middle of the road. We moved him onto the pavement and called the RSPA to come and get him.'

Anyone fancy a trip to Arnhem, Holland? Facing Pages, Europe's biggest independent magazine event, is taking place there on 20th-22nd April.

Set up by a group of magazine aficionados, Facing Pages is a collaboratively-curated exhibition. The organisers pick 25 of their favourite magazines, and each of these magazines pick five of their own favourites. Oh Comely was picked by the lovely illustrated kids' mag, Anorak. Thanks, Anorak!

We're especially sorry to be missing out on presentations about all things magazine-related, by people including Will Hudson from It's Nice That and Paul Willoughby and Matt Bochenski from Little White Lies.

There are still tickets available.

The Hambledon is a department store, sort of. Located in an old Georgian building on the Winchester high street it sells odds, ends and beautiful things. It feels like a favourite local store on a large-scale: an emporium of things The Hambledon's founders love and want to share.

Next week, The Hambledon is opening new a stationary nook and cranny-cum-department. It will look something like this:

And to celebrate the arrival of packed shelves full of notebooks and writing gear, there are a couple of creative events taking place. Illustrator James Brown - who has made a limited edition screen print to mark the occasion - will be hosting a Q&A session in store on Tuesday 27th March. Later in the week, you can head down for paper cutting with local paper artist Eileen White. More information is over here.

We went to ATP curated by Jeff Mangum last weekend. It was good. One of those music festivals where I kept my ticket wristband on for a few too many days after the event, not wanting to ever have left Butlins in Minehead, where it’s held.

Jeff Mangum played Oh Comely, the song that named the magazine, which was emotional. We played lots of air hockey, mooched on the beach and, on Saturday, gathered outside the main gate for an afternoon jog with Alan Sparhawk from Low.

The best bit was right at the end, late Sunday night. Twenty or so musicians from bands who had played over the weekend - The Sun Ra Arkestra, Boredoms, Elephant 6 - snuck on stage for a secret performance, and played us into Monday morning.

Photo: Sunday night's secret show at ATP curated by Jeff Mangum.