A very tender story of emancipation and search for freedom in 1940s Calabria and above all of friendship between Marta (Ludovica Martino), single mother, and Lorenzo (Marco Leonardi), a local homosexual who works as a wedding planner for a living. It's “My place is here”, best film and best actress at Martino at the last Bifest, written and co-directed by Cristiano Bortone And Daniela Portoalso author of the novel (Sperling & Kupfer) from which the story was born.
The protagonists are two marginalized people, in different ways, Marta and Lorenzo, who inevitably become friends and accomplices following the end of the Second World War. The first becomes pregnant by Michele who will never return from the front and after some time she reluctantly accepts the marriage proposal of a widowed farmer with two daughters. But during the wedding preparations, Lorenzo gives her a chance to emancipate her by secretly taking her to a typing course which opens her up to a better future.
This is a film that is very reminiscent of the box office hit There's Still Tomorrow by Paola Cortellesi. «Cortellesi had the merit of having cleared this theme, but they are two different films – explains the co-director and producer Cristiano Bortone -. His is a brilliant black and white film, while ours has greater depth and, in the end, a real break with the patriarchy.” While the writer and co-director Daniela Porto he specifies: «The vote for women was a great revolution for the female world, but it must be said that they were then called to vote to return to the status quo. It is no coincidence that the lower pay of women still made men more strategic in the family budget.” He finally says to Rome Marco Leonardi, actor who worked with Tornatore, Ridley Scott, Argento and Rodriguez: «What unites these two souls is certainly suffering, what happened to both of them and Lorenzo shows a noble soul until the end. It's a role I've always dreamed of playing, a man with a sensitivity very close to that of women. And I confess: I used to rehearse in front of the mirror and I don't like looking at myself. However, I interpreted it with all the respect due to this man and today I was left with his same desire to give.”