Imperfect Love

Judging by his two films (the first was Questo è il giardino?), Maderna is that rare item, a devout Catholic film-maker. Here Belaustegui plays Angela virtually as a latter-day saint who undergoes a time of trial when the doctors tell her that her baby cannot live more than a few days. She goes through with the birth, and finds herself at the centre of a media storm (it's an hour into the film before the details of the baby's condition emerge). Lo Verso is her depressed husband, who may or may not be responsible for the rape of a trainee at the supermarket where he works. Downplaying emotionalism, this is a serious film, not to say dour, sermonising and visually pedestrian - an agnostic's point of view, admittedly.