The Carati family lives in Rome: the building façade seen several times is in via del Vantaggio, just by via di Ripetta in the heart of town. Brothers Matteo (Alessio Boni) and Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio) are very close and have many friends in common with whom they spend their free time: like when they hope to meet women in parco di Tor Fiscale. After Nicola sits an exam, the friends intend to leave for the North Cape: they drive down via delle Mura Aureliane, near the shrine to Andrew the Apostle, to piazza dei Mercanti, on the right bank of the river Tiber near Porto di Ripa Grande, where they are to meet Matteo.
The attempt to return Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca), a girl who has been institutionalized, to her family takes them to Pietracarmela, although the borgo where they meet the priest who recognises her is actually Roccantica (RI). Not long after, the two brothers take different paths, later meeting up in piazzale degli Uffizi during the terrible flooding of Florence.
Nicola studies in Turin. He takes shelter from a police charge during the student protests (the university building is in La Marmora gardens) with his girlfriend, Giulia (Sonia Bergamasco), in the courtyard of Palazzo Scaglia di Verrua, an elegant 1500s building in via degli Stampatori whose façade and inner courtyard were frescoed by Antonino Parentani. When he discusses his father’s health with his mother in piazza della Consolata, Nicola is already a psychiatrist protesting the ill treatment of patients in mental asylums (a trial takes place in the former court house of via IV Marzo).
Life choices separate Giulia and her daughter and Nicola cares for little Sara alone. He buys her a blue balloon as they walk to the borgo medievale in parco del Valentino, that the child lets fly into the air so that it can go find her mother. Giulia sees her daughter at the Regional Museum of Natural Science, deserted because everyone is watching the World Cup soccer finals in 1982. In Turin, Nicola treats Giorgia as a patient, having come across her, during the inspection of a psychiatric hospital many years after their last meeting. Later, having found the courage to leave the institute, she walks through the city one evening, by areas including: via Roma, piazza Castello, the Palazzo Reale, piazza Carlo Felice, Porta Nuova station.
Having joined the police, Matteo is transferred to Palermo: he meets Mirella (Maya Sansa) in a bar in the harbour of Messina, the tables are actually on a quay with a view in porto di Civitavecchia (RM). A dead body is found in a Roman amphitheatre in Messina, which is actually in Sutri (VT). Matteo and Mirella meet again in Rome in a library. They chat and share lunch in the gardens of the Istituto Geografico Italiano in Villa Celimontana. Their night-time stroll has the Colosseum and arch of Constantine in the background. Years later, Nicola and his mother will go to Stromboli to see Mirella.
Time passes and the life of the Carati family continues to centre on Rome. In piazza Cavour Giulia meets a man who hands her a case with a gun; the Palazzo di Giustizia which dominates one side of the square is seen several times. She is later arrested in an ambush while visiting the Colosseum.
The ending is set in Tuscany: Sara waits for her mother on the steps of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence in piazza dei Cavalleggeri and Giulia plays the organ for her daughter in Basilica di Santo Spirito. The farmhouse in the ending is in Val d’Orcia, near Pienza (SI).
The Carati family lives in Rome: the building façade seen several times is in via del Vantaggio, just by via di Ripetta in the heart of town. Brothers Matteo (Alessio Boni) and Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio) are very close and have many friends in common with whom they spend their free time: like when they hope to meet women in parco di Tor Fiscale. After Nicola sits an exam, the friends intend to leave for the North Cape: they drive down via delle Mura Aureliane, near the shrine to Andrew the Apostle, to piazza dei Mercanti, on the right bank of the river Tiber near Porto di Ripa Grande, where they are to meet Matteo.
The attempt to return Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca), a girl who has been institutionalized, to her family takes them to Pietracarmela, although the borgo where they meet the priest who recognises her is actually Roccantica (RI). Not long after, the two brothers take different paths, later meeting up in piazzale degli Uffizi during the terrible flooding of Florence.
Nicola studies in Turin. He takes shelter from a police charge during the student protests (the university building is in La Marmora gardens) with his girlfriend, Giulia (Sonia Bergamasco), in the courtyard of Palazzo Scaglia di Verrua, an elegant 1500s building in via degli Stampatori whose façade and inner courtyard were frescoed by Antonino Parentani. When he discusses his father’s health with his mother in piazza della Consolata, Nicola is already a psychiatrist protesting the ill treatment of patients in mental asylums (a trial takes place in the former court house of via IV Marzo).
Life choices separate Giulia and her daughter and Nicola cares for little Sara alone. He buys her a blue balloon as they walk to the borgo medievale in parco del Valentino, that the child lets fly into the air so that it can go find her mother. Giulia sees her daughter at the Regional Museum of Natural Science, deserted because everyone is watching the World Cup soccer finals in 1982. In Turin, Nicola treats Giorgia as a patient, having come across her, during the inspection of a psychiatric hospital many years after their last meeting. Later, having found the courage to leave the institute, she walks through the city one evening, by areas including: via Roma, piazza Castello, the Palazzo Reale, piazza Carlo Felice, Porta Nuova station.
Having joined the police, Matteo is transferred to Palermo: he meets Mirella (Maya Sansa) in a bar in the harbour of Messina, the tables are actually on a quay with a view in porto di Civitavecchia (RM). A dead body is found in a Roman amphitheatre in Messina, which is actually in Sutri (VT). Matteo and Mirella meet again in Rome in a library. They chat and share lunch in the gardens of the Istituto Geografico Italiano in Villa Celimontana. Their night-time stroll has the Colosseum and arch of Constantine in the background. Years later, Nicola and his mother will go to Stromboli to see Mirella.
Time passes and the life of the Carati family continues to centre on Rome. In piazza Cavour Giulia meets a man who hands her a case with a gun; the Palazzo di Giustizia which dominates one side of the square is seen several times. She is later arrested in an ambush while visiting the Colosseum.
The ending is set in Tuscany: Sara waits for her mother on the steps of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence in piazza dei Cavalleggeri and Giulia plays the organ for her daughter in Basilica di Santo Spirito. The farmhouse in the ending is in Val d’Orcia, near Pienza (SI).
BiBi Film, Rai Fiction
The story of an Italian family from the 1960s to 2003 told through the experiences of two brothers who once shared hopes, books and friendships, but take different directions after meeting a girl who has been institutionalized.
