Vacuum

At the maternity hospital, Arianna and her husband Milo are overjoyed at the birth of their baby boy. Six months later, everything is completely different: for the young woman, daily life in their suburban Torino apartment has become a grueling routine focused exclusively on the child. Mattia has grown considerably, but the situation at the factory is grim and Milo is constantly threatened with the sack. So Arianna has to leave the child with her parents to earn a little extra as a cleaner. The economic crisis and her heavy depression deeply affect the young woman’s life as she desperately tries to find herself again. Rather than reveling in the joys of new motherhood, Arianna falls deeper into a cheerless vacuum.... Debut director Giorgio Cugno chose to look at the world through the eyes of a young mother struggling with the loss of her identity. Built upon authentic details and a claustrophobic atmosphere, he first perceived his visually impressive project as a documentary. As a reference point, the director used the statements of women suffering postpartum depression in the first year after childbirth. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)