Pietro and Jacopo, his autistic son, are traveling to Puglia when their car breaks down. They are rescued by Oliviero, a local mechanic. Pietro and Jacopo find hospitality thanks to Agata, the owner of a bar that was once a guesthouse. Gaia, who works with Agata, forms a deep bond with Pietro. Life in the small town is slown and monotonous, a waiting for something until the resumption of the journey is ultimately prevented by the dramatic truth of the events.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
In this film, I sought to preserve the same harsh, uncompromising tone of the novel upon which it is based. A story like this cannot be told in a sugar-coated manner. The viewer must be left with no way out, no alternative—just like Pietro, the main character. The drama of this father, exhausted by a crushing life, gripped by debts, and abandoned to solitude by friends, relatives, and institutions, is conveyed through the bitterness of his relationship with his son, whom he continues to care for as if driven by mere inertia. Pietro is a man whom a fierce life has by now drained of everything.
There is no judgment of him, and it is my hope that the viewer feels none either when standing face-to-face with this desperate man.
The film follows a narrative strategy of gradual revelation. Within the closed horizon of the hotel, the workshop, and the few other locations in town, the characters progressively reveal themselves to one another and to the audience. This emotional crescendo leads to a dramatic final resolution characterized by a tone of suspension. I took a strongly ‘theatrical’ approach, yet used the tools and language of cinema, experimenting with the fortunate paradox of defining the characters alongside the actors during preparation, only to let things simply happen during filming.