Agnese (Selena Caramazza) and Stefano (Simone Liberati) are like night and day. Eighteen-year old Agnese is about to take a vow of chastity. The daughter of a devout woman, Agnese goes to church regularly and decides to maintain her virginity until marriage. Stefano, on the other hand, is a streetwise 25-year-old with a violent temper and a difficult past. He works as a guard in a car park that borders a gypsy camp on the outskirts of Rome. Their unexpected meeting engenders deep feelings, made of stolen moments and some serious chemistry. In addition to being a love story with two magnetic leads, Roberto De Paolis’ first feature quietly raises the issue of the relationship between Italy and its Roma population. Stefano views the world and his Roma neighbors with suspicion. Agnese embraces the tenet of loving one’s neighbor, but she also questions some of the realities of the Church. When Stefano’s parents are evicted, the similarity between the existence of his family and that of the Roma is not lost on him. The ground is shaking for both of these young people; as their sense of stability shifts, they cling to each other and their unlikely pairing reveals new challenges and courses of action. –
Nancy FishmanPURE HEARTS screened in the 2017 Cannes Film Festival
Co-presented by
Istituto Italiano Scuola and
BAIA Business Association Italy America San Francisco