Marco Righi

17-year-old Elia is spending the summer harvesting grapes on his parent's farm. Bored and a little lonely, his life is thrown into turmoil when the beautiful and experienced Emilia comes to help with the harvest. His father, Claudio is a staunch Communist and his life too is turned upside down when the popular party leader dies. Maddalena, the mother, continues stoically through it all, secure in her Catholic faith and the prayer meetings she runs. As Emilia becomes more involved in Elia's life he opens up to her about the frustrations and joys of rural teenage life.

In a small village somewhere in the Apennines, taciturn Antimo divides his time between the local church, his tedious work on the farm and his chaste meetings with his girlfriend. His pivotal encounter with the wild loner Lazzaro awakens in the devout young man the desire to reach the very core of a faith far removed from the regular Sunday sermons delivered by a representative of the Church – a powerful institution for which freethinking and devotion to God represent incompatible ideas.