While looking for new tenants for his seaside villa, surrounded by a big garden, Andrea Ricoli, a 50-years old architect, meets Rossana, a newly 40-years old, anaesthesiologist at the local hospital, and married to Riccardo, ten years younger than her: he's an aspiring writer, temporarily employed as a salesman at a local shoe store. During an eventful New Year's Eve, Andrea introduces Riccardo to a Maghreb restaurant owner - who is interested in restoring an attic apartment - and his lovely sister Hikma. Months go by. Andrea discovers that Hikma is pregnant with Riccardo's child, while she's struggling with her old-fashioned, fundamentalist brother's mentality. He offers to help the couple and let them stay with him in his villa. Teaching him how to care for his garden, the young Hikma reminds Andrea of his wife Sofia, who passed away right there four years earlier, in unclear circumstances...
Production
That seaside villa is doing 90% of the emotional heavy lifting.
Writing
Somehow makes a 1.0 rating feel almost generous.
Director
Francesco Calogero
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Francesco Calogero is primarily known as a composer — this explains why the score outperforms the plot.
The Maghreb character dynamics reflect awkward early-2010s Italian cinema attempts at immigration narratives — progressive on paper, clumsy in execution.
IT
