Elisa

Leonardo Di Costanzo (The Inner Cage, Open Roads 2022) returns with this magnetic study of pathology and memory, based on real-life criminological research on perpetrators of violent crimes. Barbara Ronchi stars as the titular convict, 10 years into a prison sentence after having been convicted of murdering her sister without any apparent motive. Elisa claims to remember nothing about the crime and refuses to delve into her own past, but when she agrees to be a subject for a criminologist’s (Roschdy Zem) research, she finds herself confronting head-on her repressed feelings of guilt and the feasibility of something like redemption. Valeria Golino plays a supporting role as the grieving, insistent mother of a victim who meets with Zem’s criminologist. Nominated for two Donatello Awards, including Best Actress for Ronchi.