Paola Cortellesi directs and stars in this 2024 winner of the SFF Sydney Film Prize as Delia, a wife and mother doing her best to get by in the scarred city following the war. Money is short and her husband, Ivano, is a violent brute who responds to her morning greeting by slapping her in the face. Delia juggles taking care of the home, three children, and a bedridden father-in-law, with scrambling for cash to contribute to the household – and to the pockets of the ever-demanding Ivano. Delia’s dream is for her daughter Marcella to marry well and lead a better, more comfortable life – the girl’s romance with a boy from a business-owning family bodes well. She finds respite from the violence in a flirtation with an old suitor, Nino (Vinicio Marchioni), and in an unlikely friendship with an American soldier she meets on the streets. A mysterious letter compels Delia to make a momentous, life-altering choice. 

“I wanted to make a contemporary movie set in the past, because I think that unfortunately many things have remained the same,” Cortellesi said. Shot with visual panache in sparkling black and white and with a wonderful soundtrack, Cortellesi has succeeded in making a vibrant, vital film that can lead to change.