Maurizio Spicuzza

It's 1943 and World War II is raging in Europe. In New York, Arturo and Flora the daughter of a restaurant owner are in love, but she is promised in marriage to the son of a Mafia boss. There is a way around this, but to be able to marry Flora, Arturo needs to get permission from her father, who lives in a village in Sicily. Arturo doesn't have any money, so the only way he can get to Sicily is to enlist in the U.S. Army, which is preparing for a landing on the island.

Between 1926 and 1927, the Italian intellectual and Communist political figure Antonio Gramsci spent 44 days imprisoned on the island of Ustica, off the northern coast of Sicily. Together with his fellow prisoners, he founded a school. This unique institution was open to all, welcoming people of all ages and social backgrounds, even the illiterate. Ustica still remembers this revolutionary school. Ustica, remote and neglected, still waits patiently at the harbor, hoping that the boat from the mainland will come.

In the shadowed aftermath of the Second World War, Giovanni Velasques returns to his quaint hometown nestled in the breathtaking landscapes of Sicily’s mountains, bearing the scars of war inside and out. Haunted by wartime traumas, Giovanni’s tumultuous spirit finds solace in the wisdom of an elderly lady who unveils his extraordinary gift: the ability to harness the spirit of a departed soul and heal the tormented. But as Giovanni’s reputation as a healer grows, he finds himself on a collision course with two formidable adversaries: the church and the mafia. Torn between his mystical calling and societal pressures, he’s pushed into a corner of isolation, forcing him to forsake his magical calling and embrace the expected life of a family man and farmer. But will that sacred soul, worshipped like a god, truly be lost to oblivion?