Tenderness (2018) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

The film takes place in contemporary Italy, moving between several key locations: a hospital where Lorenzo recovers from a heart attack, his quiet home, his neighbor Michela's apartment, and the courthouse where justice is administered. These spaces - hospital, home, and court - frame the story's exploration of loneliness and the possibility of connection.

• italy
• setting
• locations
• hospital
• home
• courtroom

Lorenzo is an elderly retired lawyer who suffers a heart attack and withdraws from his children. He carries a complicated mix of affection and emotional detachment toward his offspring, and his past is later revealed to include deceit in his career - cheating the state to aid false invalids and participating in scams. Despite his guarded nature, he finds cautious companionship with his neighbor Michela's family.

• lorenzo
• elderly lawyer
• retired
• character
• family isolation

Fabio is a neurotic engineer who struggles to bond with his own children. He commits an unimaginable act of violence, massacring his children and taking his own life. This tragic event becomes a central turning point that forces other characters - particularly Lorenzo - to confront their own family failures and the fragility of human connections.

• fabio
• engineer
• tragedy
• family massacre
• suicide

Forgiveness threads through the film as Lorenzo confronts the distance he has kept from his children and the harm caused by his past deceit. His quiet gestures - like the final handshake with his daughter Elena - hint at a desire to mend what time and secrets have broken. Michela's steady kindness suggests forgiveness can begin through small acts of care, even when full reconciliation remains fragile.

• forgiveness
• reconciliation
• family
• redemption
• healing

Guilt shadows Lorenzo throughout the film - both his moral corruption as a lawyer who cheated the state and his emotional distance from his children. His career wins were tainted by deceit, and the narrative shows how guilt can isolate while also driving a person toward accountability. The courtroom becomes a space for public reckoning, and the ending gesture of reconciliation suggests guilt can be acknowledged without fully erasing past harm.

• guilt
• corruption
• lawyer
• accountability
• courtroom
• past deceit

Memory operates as both anchor and burden for Lorenzo. He clings to his grandson Francesco as the last warm memory of his family, a symbol of connection he once cherished. The revelation that his past included deceit shows how memories can mislead or haunt, shaping present decisions. The film uses memory to explore how people cultivate tenderness in the face of aging and loss.

• memory
• aging
• loss
• family
• nostalgia
• past

Elena Ivanovna (real name Viktoriya Isakova) is Lorenzo's daughter, with whom she has long carried tension. She works as an interpreter in the courtroom, offering Lorenzo a rare moment of quiet companionship after the trial. Their relationship remains strained but becomes capable of a restrained, fragile peace by the film's end through a silent gesture of reconciliation.

• elena
• daughter
• interpreter
• courtroom
• reconciliation
• father daughter

Michela is Lorenzo's warm neighbor who moves in with her husband Fabio and their two children. Her steady kindness helps nudge Lorenzo toward smiling again and facing his past. Despite the darkness that emerges around Fabio, her presence serves as a quiet bridge between Lorenzo's isolation and the possibility of human connection.

• michela
• neighbor
• kindness
• connection
• family

Despite the comedy genre tag, the film is a deeply serious drama with a melancholic tone. It focuses on failed relationships, mortality (Lorenzo's heart attack), and a traumatic family massacre. The slow pacing emphasizes character reflection over plot, moderating the intensity but maintaining heavy emotional weight dealing with suicide, death, and lifelong regret.

• genre
• tone
• drama
• comedy
• melancholy
• serious film

The courthouse serves as the space where the public face of justice intersects with private histories. It is where Lorenzo's past deceit is revealed and where his daughter Elena works as an interpreter. The courtroom becomes the setting for a reckoning with guilt and the possibility of reconciliation, bringing together the film's themes of accountability and fragile peace.

• courthouse
• courtroom
• justice
• trial
• accountability