Settembre (2022)

Maria, a teenage girl from Rome, returns to the city after the summer holidays and sees her schoolmate Sergio again. Her friend confides that Cristian, a boy Maria has always been in love with, supposedly intends to go out with her in order to have sex. Despite the unromantic proposition, Maria agrees to meet him, but falls into a state of panic and anxiety, leading Sergio to stay with her. As they do, they discover an attraction and emotional depth they had never realized were there. At the same time, Sergio’s mother Francesca receives the results of a delicate medical examination, prompting her to radically change her outlook on life. She grows increasingly close to her friend Debora, to whom she has always been attracted, helped along by their increasingly trusting and intimate relationship. Shaken by her new emotional situation, Francesca finds herself drinking at a bar, where she meets her doctor, Guglielmo. He listens attentively as his patient tells her story, since he, too, is going through a personal crisis after divorcing his wife. He confides to Francesca that his only human and emotional connection is Ana, a pragmatic prostitute who makes the doctor dream of future plans. Francesca, however, brings him back down to earth by telling him about the girl’s flirtation with a man from the neighborhood. The man decides to take back control of his life and break out of the stalemate he has found himself in.