缩在柜中 Come le tartarughe

Rome, historic center. Daniele, Lisa and two children: Sveva, a teenage girl, and Paolo, a seven-year old boy. A perfect family and a l ife that seems perfect. But it is not. One day Daniele empties his side of the wardrobe and leaves.

The shock and the unpreparedness for such an event, as well as the realisation that the separation will be for good, are a devastating trauma for Lisa. And with her characteristic calm, she reacts by climbing into the wardrobe that she finds empty.

The wardrobe becomes a refuge, a hiding place, somewhere to suspend time, to conceal her pain and try to heal it. Sveva, a mature and energetic adolescent, sees only the absurdity of the thing. Gradually, however, she will grow closer to Lisa, accepting her bizarre behavior, understanding her sorrow. Paolo seems make no judgements. His bond with his mother is unbroken. He is just bewildered, confused, tender, sad.

Life inside the wardrobe is tragic but at the same time comical, and it is funny too that it was Lisa, at the beginning of the story, who had wanted it to be so spacious, certainly with no idea of living in it. Daniele is not going to come home, Lisa will emerge from the wardrobe: it won’t be the end of the pain, but the first step toward an awareness of having to face up to it.