MFDB

Storyline

Antonia and Massimo have been happily married for over ten years and live in an up-market residential area near Rome.When Massimo is killed in a car accident, Antonia is devastated and gives herself up to her grief. She doesn’t go to work any more, neglects her contacts and locks herself away with her pain. And then, one day, she discovers by chance that Massimo had been having an affair for the past seven years. The only lead she has is an address and a surname; she looks it up and goes to what she believes is the apartment of Massimo’s mistress in the centre of Rome, only to discover that his other ‘woman’ is not a woman at all . . . but a man, named Michele. Antonia learns that Michele lives in the midst of a large circle of friends, which, apparently had also become her husband’s second family. Yet, whereas his marriage to Antonia was a protective cocoon, shielded from everything outside, Michele’s community is a family which is completely open to the rest of the world; a community in which men and women of varying ages, different social backgrounds and with differing sexual preferences, all live together. In spite of the extremely tense situation, Antonia and Michele sense a strong attraction – after all, they did both love the same man.As they get to know each other, they discover that they both have far more in common with each other than each of them ever had with Massimo. Instead, Antonia finds herself being taken in by this family of elective affinities, as it were, where she slowly begins to project her search for the love that she believed had died with her husband, onto Michele . . .

Festivals & Academy awards and others

Berlin International Film Festival 2001
Competition