Italian horror veteran Tony Musante plays Enrico, a Venetian virtuoso musician cripppled with a terminal disease who decides to invite his wife Valeria (Florinda Bolkan) to come visit him in Venice without revealing to her his ulterior motives behind the invitation. Having been separated for seven years, Valeria now lives with her son and her new partner who works as a successful industrial engineer in Ferrara.

On encountering each other, Valeria and Enrico take a stroll through the streets of Venice, looking back on their relationship as their once intense love for each other is revealed through a series of flashback sequences. Despite her new life, it soon becomes clear to Valeria that her feelings for Enrico have not entirely disappeared yet she remains in blissful ignorance of Enrico’s illness.

Director Erico Maria Salerno ultimately constructs not only a melancholic and beautiful elegy to a dying man but the film also serves as a lyrical postcard to the city of Venice itself, the city’s once opulence elegance fading fast in time with Enrico’s own decline.

Colm McAuliffe,
Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

Presented in cooperation with the Italian Cultural Institute