Valentina Pietrarca

Clara is a retired ornithologist, convinced that she can find the last specimen of a very rare bird extincted for 40 years. Her obsession culminated in moving to a house on a mountain, into the middle of a forest. The fragility of her psyche forces her daughter Adele to join her and try to convince her to return home. But in the woods, Adele has an encounter that makes her stay longer than she would have imagined.

During a scorching summer in the mountains of southern Italy, young, shy Luca develops an attraction for Valerio, an older boy with a passion for motorcycles. The two meet in secret, in the quiet of the countryside just outside the small town where they live. Chasing a desire that slowly escalates into obsession, Luca is forced to come to terms with the blurred boundary between pleasure and violence.

In 1986, Derek Jarman created a therapeutic garden in Dungeness—a space for care, healing, and resilience following his diagnosis.