L'Immensità
Italian family drama set in 1970s Rome, with Penélope Cruz at the heart of a slowly disintegrating family.
Rome, 1970s: a world suspended between neighbourhoods under construction, tv shows still in black and white, and social achievements and family models that are now outdated. Clara and Felice have just moved into a new apartment. Their marriage is over: they no longer love each other but can’t break up. Only their children, on whom Clara pours all her desire for freedom, keep them together. Adriana, her eldest, has just turned twelve and is the most attentive witness to Clara’s moods and the growing tensions between her parents. Adriana rejects her name and identity and wants to convince everyone that she is a boy. Her obstinacy brings the already fragile family balance to breaking point.
While the children are waiting for a sign that might guide them – a voice from above or a song on the tv maybe – everything changes both around and inside them.
L'IMMENSITÀ, the first feature film by Crialese (RESPIRO, TERRAFERMA) in eleven years, is undeniably his most personal: at the premiere he came out as a trans man, and the film is partly based on his own experiences. In an interview, he said of Adriana: ‘There's no doubt, that’s me’.