Donatella Finocchiaro

Four tales unfold in the Eternal City: While vacationing in Rome, architect John encounters a young man whose romantic woes remind him of a painful incident from his own youth; retired opera director Jerry discovers a mortician with an amazing voice, and he seizes the opportunity to rejuvenate his own flagging career; a young couple have separate romantic interludes; a spotlight shines on an ordinary man.

In Italy, three men fall in love with three women. First a young engaged lawyer has a fling, then the middle-aged married man has a fling, then a retired man falls in love with his friend's daughter.

In 1920s Bagheria, Giuseppe 'Peppino' Torrenuova works as a shepherd to financially help his poor family. Over the next fifty years, Giuseppe's life, as well as the life of the village, is observed. Giuseppe grows up, joins the Communist Party, marries a local girl, has children, and forges a political career for himself.

Assunta is a prostitute who, once she has taken her little son Mattia from the heinous fury of an abusive father, chooses to foster him to allow him to have what she, momentarily, cannot give him. Through the protagonist's point of view we will investigate the very delicate bond between mother/son/foster family, never losing sight of the child's emotional priorities. Letting ourselves be carried away by her voice over, we will find ourselves inside her reality; in the everyday life of a village in a timeless Sicily. We will walk those streets alongside her, surprising ourselves to find within that story so many other little stories laden with prejudice and backbiting against the village prostitute.

Amata is about two lives that graze one another without meeting, connected by invisible threads and choices that can change a person’s fate. With its intimate, sensual and deeply human gaze, Amata singles out the bodies and souls of its two lead actresses in order to explore what it means to choose. And love. Nunzia is an out-of-town student with a crushing secret: an unwanted pregnancy. Isolated, she weighs a grueling decision: keep the baby or give it up. In another place, Luca and Maddalena endure the emptiness of a new life that doesn’t arrive. After a long, fruitless trial, a chance presents itself: delicate, luminous, full of anticipation. Amata is the story of two women who intersect, fragile fighters yet strong at the same time, who imagine love, freedom and motherhood in its many forms. And a third woman, Margherita – the child. Torn between different worlds, and silent carrier of a bond that unites them, though no one knows.

A summer fling born under the Sicilian sun quickly develops into a heartbreaking love story that forces a boy and girl to grow up too quickly.

Nine-year-old Greta loves making Christmas decorations with her babysitter, Katy. She believes so strongly in Santa Claus that she decides to deliver a letter to her neighbor, Nicola, who leads her to believe he is Santa's personal assistant. Of course, Nicola has been lying; when Greta exposes the truth, he confesses that he has no connection to Santa Claus. To make amends, Nicola—a talented illustrator—draws an animated fairy tale for her that will change her life.