Review by Beatrice On 31-Aug-2024
From the regions of intensity, one never fully returns intact.
Torre Annunziata, Campania.
Jasmine is the owner of a hair salon. She visits a fortune teller but does not want to give any specific directions or requests.
She knows what she wants but embarks on a journey of personal processing in which she feels compelled to involve all family members, as much as possible.
A recurring image haunts her: ever since her father died, she continuously dreams of him with a blonde little girl running into his arms; that father who had always told her that she should have a daughter.
She starts thinking about adoption; after three children and a third cesarean, she doesn't feel up to having another child. Her oldest son, 23 years old, also works in her salon, and she begins talking to him about this intention.
Her husband wants to buy a warehouse in Capri for his carpentry business; they have many expenses and a loan. The adoption is costly, and Jasmine, initially against it, decides with her sister to accept the compensation for her father's death from cancer, having worked as a laborer at Ilva in Naples-Bagnoli, inhaling asbestos.
Her husband loves her unconditionally, and though he is against the adoption, he knows well that she won't give up, so he supports her.
The intricate bureaucracy, doubts about the potential gender of the adopted child, impossible to choose, the possible mental or physical disabilities of the child... the huge costs do not deter her.
The contact is with an orphanage in Belarus, where the two future adoptive parents will travel.
A true story, the story of Marilena Jasmine Amato, told through the eyes and bodies of all the family members, real, unique, extraordinary interpreters of their unusual life experience.
Jasmine is an unstoppable woman, she confesses to her husband that she is not well, she is missing something, and this pain is the absence of a daughter.
Everything is so engaging and overwhelming during the projection that it seems incredible.
The restless and intense face of this woman reflects in the love for her family but also in the man who accompanies her in this adventure.
The unstoppable desire generates determination, which in turn breeds passion and obstinate, tenacious planning.
The story of the naturalness, urgency, and immediacy of an irresistible desire, an inexplicable, extreme, and instinctive feeling, unconsciously excessive, yet absolutely intelligible and decipherable.
It is subtraction that gives strength, it is from absence that intensity is born.
The path is walked step by step. If one step is intense and perfect, so will be the next.
31-Aug-2024 by Beatrice