Roberto Herlitzka

Winner of the FIPRESCI award, this haunting portmanteau from director Marco Bellocchio is a shrewd social commentary steeped in striking gothic imagery. Set in a convent-prison, the film shifts from past to present, crafting a story that is a love letter to Italy’s past and a critique of its stasis.

Turin 1969. Massimo’s idyllic childhood is shattered by the mysterious death of his mother. The sensitive boy refuses to accept what happened. Years later, now a successful journalist, he is forced to sell his parents’ flat. Memories come flooding back, along with the anguish of an unresolved past.

Three Italian pensioners in their seventies decide to leave their lifelong, comfortable neighborhood in Rome behind for the unfamiliar abroad.