In the summer of 1975 in central Italy, a 13-year-old girl (newcomer Sofia Fiore), suitcase in one hand and a bag of shoes in the other, knocks at the door of a farmstead. So begins the story of a teenager who lost everything overnight: a comfortable home, her closest friends, the unconditional love of her parents – or rather the people she believed were her parents.
For “l’Arminuta” as her peers call her, a new and very different life begins. Her new home is smaller and darker than that of her wealthier adoptive parents, there are brothers everywhere and little food on the table to share. Faced with a new life in a new daily environment, she must also grapple with the feelings of abandonment brought on by her reunion with the family she never knew.
Adapted from a 2017 best-selling novel by Donatella Di Pietrantonio and rendered with stunning emotional clarity, Giuseppe Bonito’s third feature A Girl Returned is a thoughtful examination of childhood, motherhood, and the ties that bind.
WINNER – Best Adapted Screenplay, David di Donatello Awards 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION – Rome Film Festival 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION – Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION – Los Angeles – Italia 2022
"Bonito elegantly directs this "coming of age," garnishing it with evocative sequences."
- Cineuropa
Tuesday 13th September
110 min
18+
Vanessa Scalera, Fabrizio Ferracane, Sofia Fiore, Elena Lietti, Carlotta De Leonardis, Andrea Fuorto
Giuseppe Bonito
Film Festival
Italian with English subtitles
Palace Electric
