THE LIFE APART

The Life Apart (‘La vita accanto’) is inspired by the novel by Mariapia Veladiano, winner of the Calvino Prize, the story of a family in which unmentionable secrets and guilty feelings are intertwined with great talent and a desire for redemption.

The 1980s, an Italian art city, a rich family. Rebecca is born with a red stain that disfigures her face and throws the family into despair. Ancient poisons come to the surface, only thanks to her musical talent will she be able to overcome them.

‘Mariapia Veladiano’s novel is a tale of how discomfort can break into the life of a family, disrupting it forever. In the book, this discomfort is represented by the monstrosity of an immediately rejected newborn child. In the film, this ‘monstrosity’ is represented by a purple stain that covers half of the child’s face. Otherwise, little Rebecca is beautiful and, we discover in time, extraordinarily gifted for music. But the angioma that disfigures her makes it difficult for her to relate to others, especially her mother who has never accepted her and, out of shame, has always kept her segregated at home. The central theme is therefore the body, the acceptance of which is the basis of all identity, and how its possible imperfections (how real? how imaginary? how induced by the gaze of others?) can lead to violation in order to modify it and accept it according to the canons of an illusion’. Marco Tullio Giordana