Original subtitles

Hello, aunt.

What's that?

- From Mom. - Come in.

Really?

That's what she said.

- Good morning. - Hello.

Hello, Dede.

- Come, put it here. - Here.

Hello, Gennarino.

Hello, Immarella.

- You need a hand? - Yes, thanks.

Can you play with this?

I think so.

This piece...

Gennaro.

You look well.

Well done.

Dede, with this it'll be quicker to prepare for exams.

That's true, Mom.

With this I can take notes for the final exam.

Yeah.

It has a new operating system.

Now we put this.

Is your mom upstairs?

Where else would she be? By the way, Aunt...

A guy came by, he left this for you.

He said it was from the Montesanto jewelry store.

For me?

He came by yesterday, but you weren't home.

FORGIVE ME MARCELLO

What's with the computer?

Come in.

It's a computer from the office.

Don't you need it anymore?

I don't.

If Enzo can make it on his own, fine.

Otherwise we'll sell.

You want to sell Basic Sight?

And what will you do then?

Do you always have to do something?

I want to waste time.

Lila, you have Enzo, Gennaro, you have to think about them.

Gennaro is 23 years old. I've taken care of him enough.

And Enzo has to stay away from me.

Why?

Because I want to sleep alone again.

Sleeping alone is awful.

Why?

Do you no longer care for Enzo?

Yeah.

But I don't feel like it anymore,

with him or anyone else.

I have grown old.

And when I'm sleeping, I don't want anyone bothering me.

Dede is changing Gennaro.

Gennaro just needs confidence.

Yes, I know what Gennaro needs.

But if you're not going to work, what are you going to do?

It is not good to do nothing.

Who says I'll do nothing?

I do many things.

And when you go out, where do you go?

- I walk around Naples. - But where?

Do I have to give you explanations?

And don't change the subject.

You think Gennaro is no good for Dede.

In what sense?

You know better than me that she is in love with him.

Why are you wearing that?

Marcello had it fixed for me.

Take it off.

And don't let your daughters use it either.

It's my mom's bracelet.

You have to forget about those two.

They killed them, Elena,

and rightly so.

They were shitty people.

I'm only sorry for your sister, really,

alone and desperate.

If she had been smart, she wouldn't have married him.

Things always end badly for people like him.

I feel sorry for Elisa too.

You should be grateful that your brothers are still alive.

They have a house, a life, and they can take care of your father.

What happened?

You are here too. Just as well.

They caught Nadia, and now they'll catch Pasquale too, I'm sure.

- Where were they detained? - It was the police in Switzerland.

The newspapers say that she turned herself in.

Pasquale escaped from the Solaras and now the police will kill him.

No, not if he turns himself in.

To whom?

To the State.

The State?

Do you know what the State really is?

A bunch of crooks,

ministers who are friends of the worst criminals in prison,

police officers and magistrates who sold out.

Secret services with fascists inside.

You want to bet that Nadia will spend

a couple of months in prison and she'll get out?

That's what happens to middle-class kids.

But if they catch Pasquale,

they'll throw him in a cell and throw away the key.

But it is not a question of principles.

We only have to think about Pasquale's good.

It's better to be in jail than to get killed.

Yeah.

You two are stupid, spineless shits.

Terrified and gutless.

Go suck cocks,

that's all you're good for.

Where is she going?

Where does she go every time she disappears,

do you know?

Elena.

I think Lila goes to Doganella, to the cemetery.

She chose the grave of a random girl to think about Tina.

There is a girl there who has a date of birth and death.

Lila doesn't have that, and that's why she's going crazy.

Did you see her?

No.

But I'm sure I'm right.

Carmen, you have too many macabre fantasies.

- I want that one. - Take this.

Share it.

They are the same.

- How did it come out? - Very good.

Great!

I'm the one who should applaud you

because you kept watching us

in your homes, in your living rooms.

Sorry if we were a little pompous at times.

Mom, where's Elsa?

She went out with some friends.

Or some boys.

What do you mean?

Don't you know that Elsa hangs out with older boys?

Worry about yourself.

I've been wanting to ask you for a long time.

Are you in love with Gennaro?

Yeah.

And him?

Don't know.

And since when you feel that way?

Always.

What if he's not in love with you?

My life will no longer have meaning.

We now move on to other news, with the arrest of Pasquale Peluso,

a substantial part of the terrorist organization

based in Naples.

It's delicious, I want more, Dede.

Silence, love.

Thanks to the indications of some informants,

the police were able to identify some of the hideouts.

More news is expected

after the interrogations scheduled for these days.

Let's look at the report.

The police had identified the abandoned farmhouse

in the Caserta countryside

where a group of terrorists had been hiding, perhaps for months.

They waited before conducting a night raid

and they ordered Pasquale Peluso, who had been a fugitive for years,

to surrender without resistance.

The fugitive is being interrogated by the police

in a bid to find his accomplices.

The informant's role was decisive in this case...

For weeks, I was more concerned about Pasquale's detention in prison

than for Dede's exams.

But the murder of the Solaras

was not included among the numerous charges against him.

That remained only a suspicion on my part and his sister Carmen's.

Hello, the honorable Sarratore is waiting for us.

This is his daughter, Imma Sarratore.

Yes, ask my colleague down the hall.

Thank you.

Come.

I ended up asking Nino for help.

But I didn't tell him y suspicion either,

which to me was already a certainty.

Yes, the honorable Riccardi.

I'll put him through, just a second.

WITH US, ITALY GROWS VOTE FOR SARRATORE

What is "honorable", Mom?

He is a representative of the people, your father is busy now because of that.

What if the people hold him up?

The people won't hold him up.

There he is.

Who is there?

My pretty peach.

How is it possible?

Every time I see you, you look more and more beautiful.

- Hello, Elena. - Hello.

You look very well.

You too.

Do you know that my teacher voted for you?

Really?

I will take you to eat at a very nice place

and I want you to tell me everything

about school, about your classmates, and about that teacher.

Let me talk to Mom a little and then we'll go. All right?

We want to know if he's all right

and if all the legal guarantees are being respected.

You're also on board with those stories?

Do you know if he has decided to cooperate?

No, I don't know, but I don't think he will.

It would be better if he did.

Like Nadia?

Elena, Nadia is doing the only thing she can do

unless she wants to spend the rest of her life in prison.

Nadia is a spoiled child, Pasquale is not.

I am here to ensure that everyone's rights are respected,

and that includes the family members of the people Pasquale murdered.

You can't play at being rebels shedding real blood

and then go around shouting "We have rights."

Isn't that right?

And if someone bothers you at school, you call Dad.

- All right? - Yes, Dad.

No.

If someone bothers her, she'll stand up for herself.

Like Pasquale Peluso is doing?

Pasquale never had anyone he could ask for protection.

- And that justifies it? - No.

But it seems relevant to me that if Imma has to assert her right,

you tell her "Call me."

But, excuse me,

didn't you call me to help your friend Pasquale Peluso?

- Shall we sit at that table? - Everything ready, sir.

Did you see, love? They also make pizza here.

But it is different from ours, because it is thinner and crispier.

I'll be right back.

What about Silvestro Ordinato's speech?

I was speechless.

The same speech from months ago.

I couldn't believe it.

See you in the Chamber, goodbye.

Who have you become?

I don't recognize you anymore.

I don't understand, what's the problem now?

We were born in poverty, in crime.

The Solaras were criminals who took over everything.

But you are worse.

All of you are

a gang of looters who make laws against the looting of others.

My God, what rhetoric you have used.

Yeah.

Elena, you write very well.

But you never understood anything about politics.

Can I give you some advice?

Play with literature, with your friend,

but don't talk about things you don't know.

It's for your sake.

Are we ready to order?

Shall we call the waiter?

- What pizza did you choose? - Margherita.

Margherita?

Hello.

No news from Nino.

You'll see he'll help us in the end.

Gennaro is gone.

Where to?

He wrote so well when he was little.

But now he became illiterate.

"Mom, I can't stand being in this shitty city with you anymore.

But don't worry about me."

Did he leave alone?

Who would he go with?

Are you afraid that he's gone with Dede?

Dede?

Dede? Elsa?

Is there anyone here?

There you are.

I know it's terrible.

I know. But it will pass.

What the fuck are you talking about?

You don't know shit, you don't understand anything!

You only think about yourself and the nonsense you write.

"Dear Dede, I find the courage to write to you

just because I know I won't see you for some time.

There are not many words

because you can't control your feelings.

Gennaro has loved me for a long time

and I slowly fell in love with him.

I know this will cause you great pain

and I'm very sorry

but I also know that if I had given up on Gennaro,

I wouldn't have...

Dear Mom, I must cause you pain too.

I decided to leave school.

I tell you this with love,

your cult of studying always seemed like shit to me.

It's not books that make people good,

at best, good people write good books.

Look at Gennaro, he never read a book and he is the best of all.

And look at Dad, he's good and he's written great books.

I love you, don't be too angry.

Dede and Imma will give you the satisfaction

that I can no longer give you."

You should have known.

You know that your sister wants to take everything from you.

You had to stop her.

You are so smart,

but you let a vain and cunning girl fool you?

Lila.

Lila!

What happened?

Your son didn't leave alone.

Gennaro took Elsa.

Elsa?

Elsa is a minor.

Gennaro is nine years older than her.

By God, I will go to the police and report him.

That idiot! I can't believe it.

I underestimated him.

He made your two perfect ladies lose their minds.

Come on, come in, calm down.

If you think about it, it's rather funny.

I don't find it funny at all.

What Gennaro did is very serious.

I'm really going to go to the police.

Well go. What are you waiting for?

Go.

Go to the cops, go.

I want to know where the fuck those two went.

- Tell me now. - How would I know?

Of course you know.

Don't make fun of me, Dede, that's enough.

I remember Elsa met a friend of Gennaro from Bologna

that came to the neighborhood once.

Do you know what his name is?

Moreno.

Do you have an address?

A phone number?

You're protecting her?

No, no...

All the money disappeared and also the jewelry.

- Are you kidding? - No.

Dede, give me the number of this boy from Bologna,

I'm not going to say it again.

Lila.

Lila.

Hello, Elena.

You are here too.

Come in, sit down.

Have you heard?

We'll figure something out.

They may be in Bologna.

I want to go there right away.

Will you come with me?

There's no need.

When they don't have a penny left, they'll return home right away.

- How much did Gennaro take from you? - Nothing.

He knows that if he touches even ten lire I will break his legs.

Elsa took all my money and my jewelry.

- You didn't know how to raise her. - Enough, Lila.

I'll say what I want.

Let me get this straight.

My son took drugs, he didn't study,

he spoke and wrote badly, he was lazy, he has every fault.

But her daughter is the one who steals,

the one who betrayed her sister was Elsa.

Lila.

Maybe I should tell Pietro.

Elena, Pietro is in the United States, what could he do?

Let's try to solve this situation.

Let's try not to ruin the boy's life.

I don't want to report him to the police.

I said it in a moment of anger.

I just want to find Elsa.

We'll find her, don't worry.

I just want to get my daughter back and go home,

pack my bags

and not stay another minute in the neighborhood, in Naples.

It makes no sense for Lila and I to argue

about who raised their children better

and if what happened was her fault or mine.

It's absurd.

Elena, you have to understand Lila.

If a little girl dies,

you can't do anything about it, you have to resign yourself.

But if she disappears and no one can give you more news,

what's left in her place?

Will Tina never return or will she do it?

Will we find her?

And how? Alive or dead?

Every moment, Elena,

every moment I wonder where she is.

Is she a gypsy on the street?

Is she with rich people who couldn't have children?

Do they force her to do crap and then sell photographs or films?

Or did they break her and take her heart away for another girl?

And if she is alive and growing, where is she?

If we passed her by on the street, would we recognize her?

And even if we got her back, who will give us back the time we lost?

What if Tina thinks we abandoned her?

How is your work going?

My job is a slow job.

I occasionally write for a newspaper,

but writing a book takes me a long time.

Or I have to wait until I feel like it.

I think day and night about what I want to write.

You are very passionate when you speak.

You are in the world you chose, it has trapped you completely.

The world collapsed on Lila.

It's as if she has slipped into the void our daughter left.

And she stayed there.

Elena, please stay close to her.

She is a person who doesn't feel good about herself.

She will have a terrible old age.

And you?

We have decided to sell everything.

It's like we've been apart for a long time.

I am looking for a job in Milan.

I'll see if I find something.

Elena, it's here.

Good morning. Are you Moreno?

Yeah.

- Why? - Is Gennaro here?

- Gennaro Carracci? - Yeah.

He is with my daughter, Elsa.

You met her in Naples.

Why are you looking for them here?

Gennaro said he would come here.

I didn't see him or know anything about him.

Listen, can we check?

You don't believe me?

Please.

Thank you.

Nothing.

Let's call home.

Maybe they showed up.

The phone is there.

Hello, Lila, it's me, any news?

Okay, I'll let you know.

Let's talk later.

Bye.

Elena, Lila says Dede wants to talk to you.

- Can I? - Yes, no problem.

Hello?

Dede, what's wrong?

Mom, I'm leaving tomorrow.

I'm going with Dad to study in the United States.

This is not the time for this conversation.

Let one thing be clear, Elsa will not return to this house while I am here.

All right.

But now the most urgent thing is to know where she is.

That damn bitch called just now.

She is at grandma's house.

With grandma, yes. Thanks, love.

Bye.

I found them.

Hello?

Guido, it's Elena.

Is Elsa there?

Hello, Elena. Yes, she is here.

- My God. - Not just her.

- I'll put you through to Adele. - Yes.

Elena?

Hello, Adele.

Calm down.

- They are here. - Yes.

Do you mind if I go there?

We'll be waiting for you.

Very good. Bye.

Elena.

Where are they?

- Come, dear. - Hello, ma'am.

Hello.

Hello.

Well done, Elena, you were right to come.

Come, they are waiting for you.

I imagine Pietro already knows everything.

Yes, you're right.

He's not happy at all.

Mom.

Gennaro, could you please leave us alone?

First, give me back everything you took from me.

Okay, sure.

Well?

- Now? - Then when?

Don't touch my things again.

The money?

We spent a little.

All right. The money.

I was about to report you and Gennaro for theft.

I hate you, I don't want to see you again.

And I'm not going back to that shitty place

where you forced us to live.

Elsa...

Elsa, this is what we'll do.

I'll let you stay here all summer,

and then...

And then?

And then you come home, you go to school, you start studying...

and you will live in our apartment with Gennaro until you get tired of him.

Are you serious?

Yeah.

I will never get tired of Gennaro.

We'll see.

And Aunt Lila?

Aunt Lila will agree.

I didn't want to hurt Dede.

I love Gennaro, it just happened.

It will happen a thousand times more.

It's not true.

Here she is, I'll put her through.

It's Pietro.

Thank you.

Pietro.

Did you talk to her?

Yeah.

I thought about leaving her here for a while.

If Adele and Guido agree.

We must try to understand what kind of parents we were

and how we've let our daughters down.

Is this your way of telling me that I wasn't and am not a good mother?

No, Elena, it's my way of telling you that affection requires continuity,

and neither of us could give it to them.

This is your chance to prove it to Dede.

She has decided to move in with you right away.

No, Elena, I just got here.

I'm still adjusting. Give me a few months.

You know Dede, she's just like you.

Even if you tell her no, she will show up there.

Mother.

Dede, what's wrong?

I can't breathe.

Is Dede not leaving anymore?

I was surprised by her weight, by her warmth, her swollen hips.

For years, before that evening,

if by chance we brushed against each other,

she would run away with a repulsed gesture.

How did Dede take it?

She'll leave in a few weeks. She's staying with her father.

Tell her to come say goodbye to me.

I don't think that will happen.

Then tell her to send my regards to Pietro.

Yes, of course, I'll tell her.

In a few days, both are gone.

Don't say that.

They aren't gone.

In fact, now you also have a son.

You are the one who pushed in this direction.

What do you mean?

You always instigate,

hit and encourage.

You also want to blame me for what your daughters do?

I'm tired.

Bye. I will miss you.

Bye.

Is there a way for us have a normal relationship?

You're asking me that?

You only care about Aunt Lila and work.

Everything revolves around that.

The real punishment for Elsa is to stay here.

Goodbye, Mom.

Bye.

That day, Dede left.

There was no news about Pasquale's situation

and he was still in prison.

Lila's condition was worsening.

Enzo went to Milan, just as he had announced,

and Elsa, after two years of ups and downs with Gennaro,

and after graduating high school, enrolled in Physics.

But since she was not doing well,

she also flew to the United States, determined to study there.

Time went by.

I often went on trips for promotions, invitations,

and I also thought that leaving the neighborhood was the best thing,

but I didn't have the courage to tell Lila.

Elsa, like Dede, also left without saying goodbye to Lila,

but then, surprisingly, started speaking well about her.

She said she understood why I'd been her friend for so many years

and she said, without any irony,

that she was the best person she had ever met.

But Gennaro did not share that opinion.

Elsa's departure did not prevent him,

as surprising as it may seem, from continuing to live with me.

Is anybody home?

Gennaro.

Aunt, you're back?

You are still here.

And your mom?

She went out with Imma.

How are you?

All right.

Sorry, aunt, I'm better off here.

Mom doesn't even say hello to me.

She's always in front of the computer, writing.

What does she write?

How should I know?

- Hello, Imma. - Hello, Gennaro.

- All good? - Yeah.

Did you see who's here?

Hello, Mom!

Hello.

You won't believe the place Aunt Lila showed me.

It's an abandoned building where she says spirits live.

- She exaggerates. - No, Mom.

Do you know that in Porta Nolana it is said that there's a dead girl

and that at night she's seen wandering the streets?

And do you think she really exists?

Aunt says that the souls of the dead return to test the living,

that they are found in people's eyes, in their ears,

in their voice when they start to speak, in their mind when they think.

If Aunt Lila says so, it may be.

- Hello? - Hello, Elena.

Turn on the television and put on the news.

Yes. Goodbye.

In the next few hours, he will be questioned by the magistrate.

He is a member of the Socialist Party,

head of the Commission for Southern Italy,

and president of the Commerce Confederation.

Let's watch the report.

The honorable Nino Sarratore was arrested this morning.

The police has arrested him in front of his house in Rome

when he was addressing the parliamentary committee meeting.

The accusations against him are serious,

but neither him nor his lawyer wanted to make statements.

His name had long been circulating in the investigation

which now involves several representatives of the Socialist Party

and of other parties.

He always liked to be in the newspapers,

and now all the newspapers in Italy talk about the honorable Nino Sarratore.

You shouldn't take it like that.

- Elena, your life was always... - I'm going to Turin, Lila.

I want to leave this place.

And you're going to end up in Pietro city,

and also Adele's.

No, Guido and Adele moved to Genoa. Guido is from there.

Are you happy with Imma?

- See how well she did on her exams? - Yeah.

I have to thank you for helping her through a difficult time.

Elena, I took care of Imma when she was little.

I also did it because Tina really loved her.

Maybe more than she loved me.

I don't understand you, Elena.

What don't you understand?

I don't understand how it's possible

that in all this time

you haven't thought about that even once.

About what?

Do you remember that photograph in the newspaper?

The one where you were with Tina,

the one where it said she was your daughter.

Yes, of course I remember it.

For a long time I thought Tina was taken because of that picture.

What do you mean?

They thought they were taking your daughter, but they took mine.

You were always on the papers, on television.

So beautiful, so blonde, so elegant.

Maybe they wanted your money and not mine.

Who knows?

I don't know anything anymore.

Enzo told the police, I told Antonio.

But no one took that possibility seriously.

She seemed certain that things had happened that way.

Had they taken Tina in Imma's place?

Was my success to blame for her daughter's kidnapping?

And was her bond with Imma anxiety and protectiveness?

Did she believe that the kidnappers, after getting rid of the wrong girl,

could come back and take the right one?

Why was she telling me this now?

Did she want to inject me with one last poison

to punish me because I wanted to leave her?

When there's too much silence, many thoughts come to me.

Don't mind me.

Evil breaks through the ground and comes out where you least expect it.

Maybe I think the wrong things, Elena,

but only in bad novels people think and say the right things.

Lila.

If you were to write something, and this is just a hypothesis,

would you let me read it?

- Something like what? - Something.

Gennaro says you're always on the computer.

Gennaro talks nonsense.

I don't write.

Are you sure?

Of course. I don't write anything to anyone.

All right.

But in case you happen to write something, anything,

would you let me read it?

Would you let me publish it?

You are the writer.

You didn't answer me.

I answered you, but you pretend not to understand.

To write you need to have the desire for something to survive you,

and I don't even want to live, Elena.

I never had a desire as strong as yours.

If I could eliminate myself now, as we speak, I would.

And I would be much happier.

Imagine if I'm going to start writing.

Did you see the computer?

It forces you to leave your trace everywhere.

Like you're shitting or peeing yourself all the time.

I don't want to leave anything behind me.

And don't think about what I told you about Tina.

Who knows? Maybe she'll come back tonight,

and then who will care about what happened, how it went down.

The important thing will be that she is back...

and that she forgives me for my distraction.

Forgive me too.

And now go, go to Turin,

and do even more beautiful things than what you have done until now.

I took care of Imma out of fear that someone would take her,

and you took care of Gennaro even when your daughter left him.

Thank you.

I'm so glad we've been friends all this time.

And that we still are.

Any intense relationship between human beings

is full of traps

and if you want it to last, you must learn to avoid them.

I did that on that occasion

and in the end, it seemed to me that I had come across one more test

of how splendid and dark our friendship was,

of how long and complicated Lila's pain had been,

of how it still lasted and always would last.

Hello?

I can't find Mom.

Since how long?

Two weeks.

I thought she was wandering around town, like always.

You haven't seen her in a long time, she's gotten a lot worse.

Is she with you?

No, she's not here.

Are you sure?

Rino, please.

I told you she's not here.

So where did she go?

Did you look in her closet?

What for?

There is nothing there.

All her clothes are gone.

She took everything.

There is a drawer where she keeps her photos.

She took the scissors

and cut herself out from all the photographs.

All the ones we were in together.

Even when I was little.

You always liked to exaggerate, Lila.

When we were little, and even now that we are old.

I had promised you that I would never do it,

but I'm very angry,

so I'll write your whole story.

Years have passed since Gennaro's phone call

in which he notified me of Lila's disappearance.

The time it took me to write this book.

At times I hate her for her decision to leave me out,

now of all times, in old age,

when we need closeness and solidarity.

She always did the same, when I didn't bend,

she would exclude me,

she would punish me.

Sometimes I wonder where she disappeared to.

To the bottom of the sea, inside a crack,

or in an underground tunnel that only she knows about?

In an old bathtub filled with powerful acid?

In the crypt of an abandoned church in the mountains?

In one of the many dimensions we don't know yet, but Lila does?

And she stayed there,

along with her daughter.

I immediately recognized our dolls,

that one after another, almost sixty years ago,

had been launched

mine by Lila, Lila's by me,

into a cellar in the neighborhood.

It was them, it was Tina and Nu.

The dolls that we had never recovered,

although we had gone underground to look for them.

With the money that Don Aquiles gave us we bought "Little Women",

the novel that had led Lila to write "The Blue Fairy,"

and me to become what I am today.

That's what she had done:

She had deceived me, she had dragged me where she wanted.

Or maybe not.

Maybe those two dolls

that had went through more than half a century

and had arrived in Turin

just meant that she was all right and that she loved me.

That she had broken her limits and finally wanted to travel the world,

no longer smaller than hers,

living in old age according to a new truth,

her life, that had been forbidden to her in her youth

and she had forbidden herself.

Now that Lila has shown herself so clearly,

I must resign myself to not seeing her again.