Cinema that tells story of women

A woman standing in the dark, barefoot. Her husband looks at her from a distance, then tosses her a bundle in a white towel—her baby. The woman tries to catch it. But it lands on the ground with a dull thud.

This powerful scene is the opening of ‘Abyss’, one of the 25 movies shown at The European Union Film Festival in Nepal (EUFF). The 14th edition of the festival aims to showcase the strength that lies in diversity, as the organisers said at the opening ceremony. They want people to travel across borders and find shared humanity.

The two-day festival drew a full house at all screenings, with more than 1,800 viewers enjoying the films.

What stood out was that many films—from renowned directors and students alike, from Europe and Nepal—addressed topics of women’s self-determination and society’s expectations of women.

The EUFF opened with a powerful Italian drama set in the 1960s. The young woman, Lia Crimi (Claudia Gusmano), lives in a small village in southern Italy with her parents and her little brother. When she does not reciprocate the attention of Lorenzo Musicò (Dario Aita), who comes from a wealthy and powerful family, the young man kidnaps and rapes her.

According to the customs of the time, Lia is now forced to marry him to save her honour. But Lia refuses and instead takes Lorenzo to court. The film shows how Lia and her family must fight against the hostility of the community, the Musicò family and even representatives of the church to obtain justice.

‘The Girl from Tomorrow’ is deeply moving—even more so as it is based on the real-life story of Italian woman Franca Viola, the first woman in Italy to refuse to marry her rapist and who became a symbol of the emancipation of women. The law whereby a rapist could erase his crime by marrying his victim was not abolished in Italy until 1981. The empathetic film honours the people who stood up against this injustice—even when it meant putting themselves at risk.

Director: Marta Savina

Language: Italian

Year: 2022

Duration: 1 hour 37 minutes