L'ETÀ DELL'INNOCENZA

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE

by Enrico Maisto

Original version: italian subtitles: english

DCP, color, 75′, 2021

co-production with START and Rai Cinema

World Premiere: Festival dei Popoli 2021

The courtroom is deserted. In the distance, a tiny character is trying to line up symmetrically the huge chairs. It’s President Anna Conforti. It ’s been a few days since she pronounced the last verdict of her life as a judge. Anna is my mother. Since I was a child, the feeling that there was no little secret that “the president of the court” would not have discovered, has led me to deny her any access to my emotions. Everything she has ever known about me, she had to guess it from the movies I’ve started making since I was a little kid. Now that she’s retiring the fear of my mother getting old without ever really knowing anything about me, pushes me to film her. But an unexpected event disrupts the balance. My mother undergoes surgery for breast cancer. Her wish to know me, to know that I am capable of being happy, gets stronger, and so does my need to fulfill it. The beginning of my first important relationship is the chance to try and open up, coming out from that comfort zone behind the camera where I’ve been hiding since I was a child. The Age of Innocence is the story of a sentimental education told through my subjective camera.