Alfredo talks to himself, or rather he talks to a cigarette. Loneliness, real loneliness, is a bad thing, especially at seventy.
Alfredo is a man who loved another man, Mario. He loved him so much that he found the courage to come out and lose his job and family. Mario, on the other hand, continued his married life, then became a father and finally a grandfather, because he is gay, but only part-time. Alfredo can’t let him go but he can’t even live that relationship halfway and so the separation becomes inevitable.
Initially Mario convinces himself that he can escape the melancholy but then, by mistake, he puts on one of his partner’s t-shirts and sees their whole life together again. Yes, because a perfume is enough to return you to where you were loved. Mario no longer wants to be separated from that smell which turns into an obsession, convinced that once it disappears, the last traces of their love will also disappear.
Seven minutes is the time it takes to smoke a cigarette on the balcony, Seven minutes to think about your life and discover that it takes courage to exist, even what others haven’t had.