At 15, you’re still a baby to some while to others, just old enough to know better. Usually these interested parties are relatives who carry their own reasons for either prolonging a loved one’s innocence or hurrying up their maturity. But for the forthright middle daughter of a close-knit family in filmmaker Jonas Carpignano’s tough, vibrating Italian drama “A Chiara,” that adolescent shedding of naivete can’t come fast enough.

Dark-haired, with piercing eyes, Chiara (Swamy Rotolo) is in many ways a typical teenager: glued to her phone and friends, quick with attitude, sneaky with e-cigarettes, and rigorous about her appearance. Yet she also cherishes what a cocoon of love and support her family is — from her rambunctious kid sister to her soft-spoken and emotional dad Claudio (Claudio Rotolo), to the extended clan in their seaside Calabrian town.