A young woman trudges down the street, heavily pregnant, clearly about to give birth. She’s alone. Another woman in an evening dress attends a piano concert; her husband is on stage. She can’t catch her breath and has to step outside. What these two women have in common, and how their fates come close to intersecting, is explained in an extended flashback in Be Loved, the new feature by Elisa Amoruso (Bellissime [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], Sirley [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], the series The Good Mothers [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
interview : Valentina Bellè
fiche série]). Following its world premiere in the 82nd Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori line-up, the film opens in Italian cinemas on 16 October via 01 Distribution.

Scripted by writer and TV author Ilaria Bernardini based on her novel of the same name, Be Loved tells the story of two women and their nigh-on opposing journeys toward motherhood. Nunzia (21-year-old Tecla Insolia, already the winner of two David di Donatello awards and a Nastro d’Argento) is a free-spirited and uninhibited 19-year-old student living away from home. She comes from Sicily, where her mother runs a fishmonger’s. At night, she goes dancing and makes love. She ends up pregnant, but keeping the child is out of the question. Maddalena (Miriam Leone) is a civil engineer in her forties who lives in a luxury apartment with her husband, Luca (Stefano Accorsi), an acclaimed pianist. When her pregnancy test comes back positive, their initial joy gives way to uncertainty: they long for a child, they’ve already tried three times, but this too could end in disappointment.

Nunzia is about to have a baby – but she doesn’t want one. Maddalena longs to be a mother – but she can’t manage to do so. The two narratives run in parallel with, one the one hand, a lonely girl who decides to go through the pregnancy without telling anyone, convinced that once she gives birth the baby will “disappear”, and, on the other, a frustrated woman whose desire for motherhood is becoming an obsession. Between them stand the “cradles for life.” Formerly known as foundling wheels, these small, heated cots are positioned near hospitals where struggling mothers can leave their newborns safely and anonymously. After 40 seconds the shutter drops. The woman has ten days to change her mind, but once that time has passed, the baby can be put up for adoption.

In Italy – we’re reminded at the end of Be Loved – there are 300 unacknowledged newborns each year. Amoruso’s film casts an important light on the subject, treating it with delicacy and humanity. The narrative thread centred on Insolia stands out for its visceral charge, aided by the actress’s striking performance, while Leone works more closely with reined-in emotions and things left unsaid. The result is an intimate social drama which – despite a few didactic passages, such as the sessions with the psychologist (Donatella Finocchiaro) or moments when tragedy seems close at hand (notably those glances into the void, whether from a balcony or a building site scaffold) – succeeds, to the strains of Franco Battiato’s wonderful Te lo leggo negli occhi, in conveying the profound significance of two women’s free choice about how and when to be mothers.

Be Loved is produced by MeMo Films and Indiana Production with Rai Cinema. International sales are handled by Rai Cinema International Distribution.