10 giorni senza mamma (2019)

Carlo Rovelli is the human resources manager at Family Market, a supermarket chain. For years, his dedication to work has kept him away from his family for many hours each day. Weekends bring into focus the distance between Carlo’s working life and the many problems in the family home, leading to a breakdown in communication, misunderstandings, and friction with his wife, Giulia, a former lawyer forced to be a homemaker, and their three school-age children. After yet another argument with his wife, an unexpected reaction is triggered: Giulia announces that she wants to accompany her sister on a relaxing vacation in Cuba, leaving the entire running of the family in her husband’s hands. Carlo accepts the challenge, despite his eldest daughter Camilla’s typical adolescent turmoil, his second child Tito’s playful exuberance, and little Bianca’s difficulties with her unintelligible speech as she tackles her first attempts at writing and drawing directly on the walls at home. Before leaving, Giulia reassures Carlo by giving him a schedule of appointments for the next ten days, including all the times and tips for dealing with the daily challenges. Meanwhile, Carlo has to deal with new hires at work as a result of an internal departmental restructuring: the president of Family Market assigns him an outside consultant to work alongside him, with the aim of increasing competition among employees. Carlo’s rival seems highly capable in the president’s eyes because of his personal initiative in handling company problems, such as an employee stealing products. She was fired on Carlo’s own suggestion, after he and his direct competitor had challenged each other to come up with the harsher punishment. Carlo must, however, divide his time between work and the family’s everyday routines. He has to take little Bianca to nursery, but discovers that he is required to stay with her because a parent must be present during the settling-in period. At the same time, Carlo tries to keep up with the many mothers’ WhatsApp groups Giulia added him to before leaving. Reading the messages distracts him so much that he runs over Dolores, the trusted nanny, losing a valuable figure in the family’s balance. Tito has needs of his own, too: one day a week, he has a schoolmate and sports teammate over at their house. Tricked by the two boys, Carlo loses two central incisors and discovers that his son had brought home another friend, Ascanio, instead of Giorgio, whom they had left alone at the playing field. Giulia, still in contact with the family, hires a new babysitter, Lucia, remotely. Meanwhile, thirteen-year-old Camilla has constant mood swings and is infatuated with her classmate Marco. Carlo discovers that Lucia is the same woman who was previously fired by Family Market at his own initiative. But because the three children adore her, Carlo hides the truth from her and pretends to be a lawyer. Lucia asks him to help her sue Family Market, and Carlo deceives her, saying he can get her reinstated. However, she discovers the truth and, furious, quits. Carlo gets to know his three children better. The ultimate test is the company family day, organized by the president to test how well employees get along with their relatives. However, Camilla and Tito, despite agreeing to take part in the competition, devise a plan to get back at their father, convinced that he is having an affair with Lucia. After deliberately losing the scheduled contests, the two children get their father into a zorb and send him careening into the employees and the president’s villa—which the sphere also crashes into and which serves as Family Market’s headquarters. They then sow panic by setting off fireworks. Once the misunderstanding about Lucia is cleared up, Carlo feels that he has won back his children’s trust and asks Lucia for forgiveness; he discovers that she is the mother of a young boy. On the day the company announces that his rival consultant is to become the new head of human resources, Carlo brings Bianca with him, turns down the position of deputy manager, and gets himself fired. When Giulia returns, impressed by how efficiently family life has been running, she tells the family that she intends to resume her career as a lawyer, effectively assigning her husband the role of full-time homemaker.