Anna (Valeria Golino) is a sad yet vivacious woman caught in the claustrophobic confines of her small seaside apartment, her difficult marriage, and her job as a cue card writer for a telenova. But when she falls in love with the soap opera's handsome leading man Michele (Adriano Giannini), the clouds looming over her psyche start to lift and her world suddenly seems brighter. Set in the shifting light and incendiary emotions of Neapolitan life, director Giuseppe M. Gaudino uses tinted colors and music to convey Anna’s journey from immobilization to a spark of self-confidence, which she nurtures with the help of her new affair. Flashbacks to her courageous youth, when she was the brave child chosen to descend from a church tower on a rope and wearing angel's wings for a religious holiday, are interspersed with scenes of her daily life in which she struggles to balance her rebellious children, her explosive husband, and her fantasy-inducing job. Gaudino’s romantic drama brims with quirky characters, delightful animated drawings of Anna, and light-filled vistas of the Bay of Naples. Valeria Golino won the 2015 Venice Film Festival’s Best Actress Coppa Volpi award for her portrayal of a woman whose desire points the way to a renewed passion for life.

Copresented by Pino Libereria