Mid-August Lunch

Gianni, a middle aged man, lives with his mother in an old apartment in the centre of Rome. His days drag out between housework and a local wine shop. The day before Ferragosto (an annual celebration on August 15), the apartment building administrator asks him to look after his mother over the two-day holiday. In return, the administrator will write off the condominium debts he has accumulated throughout the years. Gianni is forced to accept…

“The only child to a widowed mother, for many years I was left alone (my wife and daughters had left in an act of self-preservation) to deal with my mother, a woman with an overwhelming personality, and the world around her. Even though it was demanding, I grew to know and love the richness, vitality and power of the universe of the “elderly”. But I also witnessed their solitude and vulnerability in a fast-paced world that moves without knowing where it is going because it leaves its history behind, loses the continuity of time, fears old age and death, and ignores the fact that the only thing of value is the quality of feelings.
This is the result.”