Vincenzo Giordano
Carmen Bagalà
Vincenzo Giordano, Valentina Morricone
A baroque villa floating outside time. A myth coming to terms with the end of an era. In a 1996 Southern Italy suspended between faith and magic, creation and abandonment, Mother Caristo – the woman who gave life to a legend – attempts one last miracle. Now, though, she must choose whether to surrender to the truth.
Ionian Calabria, mid-90s. The magic liquorice in the gardens of the ancient baroque villa is now dry. For Mother Caristo and the entire world, the plant's roots have been the core of a legend transcending religions, granting dozens of sterile couples the mystery of new life over the last forty years. Elisa – her real name – is a simple surrogate mother, yet everyone still perceives her as a deity. Now over sixty, as another couple is about to arrive at Villa Caristo, she is gripped by the doubt that her womb can no longer create. Helping her is Saty, an Indian orphan who arrived on foot from Calcutta; meanwhile, the journalist Rosario, keeper of a secret past, is ready to reveal the truth.
The war in Bosnia has just ended, and Layla and Drago arrive at Villa Caristo in a bullet-riddled car. What the youth cannot imagine is that Saty recognised them: that was the car that abandoned a newborn outside the village church the night before. Dealing with the baby's incessant crying as an impromptu nanny, Saty stays silent, letting events dictate their flow.
Elisa’s womb remains flat, while Villa Caristo spits out an ancient, unfinished fresco. In restoring it, Layla grows tenderly close to Elisa. But the two women's scars will bring a painful truth to light. The legend crumbles. Elisa, finally, can begin to live.