Vincenzo Russo

In August 1961, speleologists from Italy’s booming North arrive on a Calabrian plateau where time stands still. The intruders discover one of the world’s deepest caves, the Bifurto Abyss, under the gaze of an old shepherd, the only witness of the pristine territory.

Rosa is a young rebel girl who lives with her grandmother and her uncle in a remote part of Calabria, in Southernmost Italy. Her mother's untimely death when Rosa was a child casts a gloomy shadow on her present life.

At the end of the 1950s in Africo, a small village in the southern valley of Aspromonte, a woman dies in childbirth because a doctor fails to arrive on time. No road connects Africo with the other villages. In the wake of this tragedy, all of Africo’s citizens -including children - abandon their usual occupations and unite to build their own road. Giulia, the new schoolteacher, comes from the North with a mission to teach standard Italian to help bring cultural cohesion with Africo and the rest of Italy. But she will have to contend with the local mafioso Don Totó, who is determined to ensure this the town remains cut off, and thus, under his power.

When theatre actor Giuliano receives an unexpected visit from his childhood friend Tommasso, the encounter is bittersweet. This reunion is their first meeting in many years, triggered by Giuliano’s failing health and his decision to forgo treatment. Instead he is focussed on putting his affairs in order: distributing possessions, reconciling past disputes, and, most importantly, finding a home for his beloved canine, Pato. Over four days, the two men walk the streets of Rome, visiting bookshops, restaurants, veterinarians and friends, examining their lives and speculating on what the future holds.