L’avversario

Ciociaria, early ‘50s. A young farmhand is recruited to participate in Miss Italia selections, but her body measurements are not quite right for the contest. To undergo a terrible process of physical transformation seems to be the only way to be elected Reginetta.

On the sun-burned countryside, the dust rises in gusts. Three boys stop in front of a hole. The youngest holds a gold chain in his hands, while the others persuade him to bury it. "This land is miraculous", they tell him: "a golden tree will grow here, make us rich, bring us luxury". Trusting, the boy drops the chain into the hole, then the miraculous earth slowly covers it. The next day, what they find will push them to act in an increasingly selfish way, attracted by the promise of wealth: from that moment on, the lust for gold will sow among them a greed destined to grow without control. But like a new Pinocchio, the protagonist takes us to an unexpected epilogue.