Il padre d'Italia (2017)

Paolo is a solitary, introverted gay man in his thirties who works as a shop assistant in a store in Turin. He has just had to end an important relationship that lasted eight years because his ex, Mario, wanted to marry him and start a family, while Paolo lives in an eternal present. One evening, in a dark room, he is approached by Mia, a young woman who is six months pregnant and faints in his arms. Paolo helps her, and after they go to the emergency room, where Mia signs herself out against medical advice, he takes her home because she has nowhere to go and no one to take her in. The next day, feeling better, Mia asks Paolo to take her to Asti, where her rock band and the boyfriend who abandoned her the night before are due to meet. Very reluctantly, Paolo borrows a van from the store where he works and drives her there, only to see her being harshly rejected by both the band and her boyfriend. Mia then asks him to take her to Rome, where she had been living with some other young people. Paolo manages to keep the van and take her there, but they find her apartment occupied: in reality, she had only been using it as a temporary place to stay. Mia then wants to go to Naples, where the father of her baby lives. During the journey, Paolo and Mia form a deep bond: the young woman’s exuberant personality gradually draws the withdrawn young man out of his shell and helps him come to terms with the end of his relationship. They also share several confidences, and Paolo tells her he grew up in an orphanage after being abandoned by his mother. But when they arrive at Mia’s former lover’s home, they get a nasty surprise: the man has been dead for over a year, so he cannot really be the unborn child’s father, whose identity remains unknown. Despite this, Paolo decides to stay with Mia. The two develop strong feelings for each other and grow closely attached. They go to the orphanage where Paolo grew up, allowing him to finally confront his past. Later, they head to Mia’s family in Calabria. For the first time, Paolo gets to experience life in a family, and he suggests that Mia stay there: he will be the child’s father, and they will live like a real family. For a while, it works: Mia teaches Paolo to swim and chooses the baby girl’s name, Italia. But before long, Mia grows restless with the life she had always run away from. On the one hand, her father barely speaks to her; on the other, during an argument with her mother, her mother confronts her with the fact that being a parent means making many sacrifices and taking on responsibilities for which Mia is completely unprepared. Mia decides to run away, leaving Paolo alone again. Accepting that his adventure with Mia was just one big folly, Paolo returns to his old life. But some time later, he gets a call from a hospital in Sicily: after taking drugs, Mia was brought there unconscious, and the doctors, having detected a placental abruption, induced labor. After giving birth to the baby girl, Mia ran away again without acknowledging her as her own; before leaving, however, she named Paolo as Italia’s biological father. Finally free of his ghosts, Paolo hesitates for a moment, but then, moved, acknowledges the little girl as his own, accepting a parent’s responsibilities and fears and finally thinking about his own future.