Giulia non esce la sera (2011)

Guido is an emerging writer whose latest book has enjoyed modest sales success, but he cannot find anything within himself that connects him to his work. He has little imagination, never reads, and above all lacks the ideas needed to bring a novel worthy of the name to life. As he tries to write a new book, he struggles along with stories of little literary merit, which he is often tempted to throw away. Guido is married to Benedetta and has a daughter, Costanza, who is learning to swim in a swimming class while he watches her from the stands. Costanza’s instructor is Giulia, a beautiful young woman with an abrupt, rough manner. Costanza confides in her father that she wants to stop going to the pool because she does not like the sport. Her father agrees that she can quit swimming, but since the lessons have been paid for through the end of the year and he himself cannot swim, he decides to take the course in her place. He meets Giulia, who gradually teaches him to float and then to take his first strokes. Guido begins to develop feelings for Giulia and invites her to go out with him one evening, but Giulia says, as she puts it, that she “doesn’t go out in the evenings.” Giulia tells him that she is a prisoner serving the final seven years of her sentence under a semi-liberty arrangement: with the judge’s permission, she can spend the day outside prison working for the community, but must return to prison at night. Giulia was convicted of murder. Guido thus learns about the woman’s past: Giulia had married many years earlier, and a daughter had been born from the marriage. Later, however, she fell in love with another man and left everything for him: her home, family, and job. But the relationship did not last long, and when Giulia realized the man was going to leave her, she killed him. Guido is in love with Giulia. During the day, he goes out with her, even taking her to the seaside, and accompanies her back to the penitentiary every evening. He also makes an effort to find Giulia’s former family and, once he does, contacts her daughter by writing her a letter in which he pretends to be Giulia. In this way, he manages to arrange a meeting between the two, and Giulia learns about Guido’s letter only as he is driving her to meet her daughter. Giulia’s husband also comes to the meeting. He still seems to have feelings for her and hopes they might get back together. Then her daughter arrives. After the initial awkwardness, which Giulia tries to ease with her words, her daughter tells her that she hates her and will not forgive her for abandoning her. She speaks of the distress she suffered as a child, first as the daughter abandoned by a mother who ran off with another man, and then as the daughter of a murderer. She asks to be left alone and not contacted again. Shaken, Giulia does not return to prison and spends the night outside. The next day she goes to Guido’s house to spend some time with him; then she leaves Guido and returns to prison alone. Although the judge is lenient and allows Giulia to resume her work outside prison, she gives it up, has herself placed in a cell alone, and refuses Guido’s visits. Feeling that her life cannot be put right again, she kills herself by suffocating herself with a plastic bag. Her personal belongings are handed over to Guido, who finds Giulia’s diary among them. The diary contains thoughts about her daily activities at the swimming pool and their love story, as well as the anguish of a mother who sees her relationship with her daughter as irreparable and the despair this causes her.