Midwest Premiere

Mixing romance, suspense, and thriller, Rampoldi’s debut poses a very simple question to all of us: where do love’s limits lie?

ABOUT THE FILM

Two couples, two generations: on one side the thirty-year-old Lea (Pilar Fogliati) and Andrea (Andrea Carpenzano), on the other the fifty-year-old Rocco (Adriano Giannini) and Cecilia (Valeria Golino). One evening, in a bar, Lea and Rocco meet and begin a clandestine relationship that unfolds within the walls of a hotel room. That seemingly ordinary betrayal will ultimately upend their lives — and those of their partners — in completely unexpected ways.

One of Italy’s most acclaimed and respected screenwriters (La ragazza del lago, Il traditore, Gomorra – the series), Ludovica Rampoldi makes her directorial debut with a deft exploration of the fragile boundaries between love and passion, rendering the characters’ emotional whirlpool palpable and capturing the complexity of adult relationships, where desire becomes a catalyst for painful truths and unavoidable confrontations.

DIRECTOR'S BIO:

Ludovica Rampoldi works as a screenwriter for both film and television. Her collaborations include work with Marco Bellocchio (“Il traditore”, presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, for which she won the David di Donatello and the Nastro d’Argento for Best Screenplay, and “Esterno notte”, presented at Cannes Premier in 2022, nominated for the David di Donatello for Best Screenplay and winner of the Nastro d’Argento for Best Series), Bernardo Bertolucci (The Eco Chamber, which was intended to be the director’s final film), and Gabriele Salvatores (“Il ragazzo invisibile”, awarded the Nastro d’Argento for Best Original Story and the Young Audience Award at the EFA). Among her other works is “La doppia ora”, directed by Giuseppe Capotondi, presented in competition at Venice in 2009, awarded the Coppa Volpi and nominated for Best Debut Film at the David di Donatello and the EFA.

Recently, she wrote the screenplays for “Il maestro” by Andrea Di Stefano (also screening at this year’s IFF) and “Primavera”, the directorial debut of Damiano Michieletto, presented at the Toronto International Film Festival, both set to be released soon.

For television, she has created and written some of the most successful Italian series of recent years.