A Soul Split in Two

Pietro Di Leo works as a security officer at a Milan department store and is deeply dissatisfied. He is separated from his wife and has a son he sees only on weekends, and his psychosomatic symptoms reveal profound discomfort. The opening paints his tense routine and growing frustration.

Pabe, a young Roma woman, is introduced as someone who must get rid of the warehouse and ends up being caught stealing perfume. Pietro witnesses the theft and offers false testimony to help her. This encounter marks the start of his growing fixation on her.

Pietro, increasingly fascinated, helps Pabe escape by leaving Milan in a car. They abandon their old lives and begin a nomadic run from hotel to hotel. The act seals their initial, reckless commitment to each other.

On the road, Pabe resists closeness at first and clings to her Roma identity. She gradually allows intimacy as trust grows, while adjusting to life in a confined space. Their relationship deepens amid constant movement.

Pabe struggles with work as a seamstress, then takes a job as a hotel waitress after changing her appearance. She cuts her hair, wears ordinary clothes, and stops displaying her earrings to pass as Italian raised with a Greek accent. Survival drives the transformation.

The couple reaches Ancona and marries, whether civil or symbolic, to start anew. Pietro is determined to build a stable life while Pabe begins to feel safe and loved. The search for normalcy marks a turning point in their story.

Pietro sheds his bourgeois persona, grows his mustache, and becomes fully devoted. Pabe, possibly pregnant, feels happiness despite their outsider status and the moral gaze of others. Their private bliss contrasts with outside judgment.

Outside pressures intensify: Pabe witnesses a Roma being expelled from a bar, a stark reminder of prejudice. She encounters another Roma in poverty who tries to talk to her, highlighting the harsh social dynamics they face. The couple’s fragile happiness is constantly tested by bias.

Pietro's ex-father-in-law is found dead in bed, and Pabe is shocked by the funeral's emotional weight. She reflects on death and the value of community rituals for gypsies, deepening the cultural contrast between her world and Pietro's.

The hotel manager questions rumors about Pabe's true ethnic identity, implying she could be blamed for theft. The suspicion forces Pabe to leave Pietro without notice, taking only the chain that had bound them from the beginning. Their bond fractures under social pressure.

Pabe returns to Milan to the nomad camp from which she had fled, but the camp is no longer there when she arrives. She steps into a ruined, uncertain landscape, signaling the collapse of their shared dream. The journey of fleeing identities reaches a desolate crossroad.

Pietro and Pabe's life ends with a fractured relationship, the chain that once bound them left behind as a symbol of their lost connection. The final scenes leave their futures open to interpretation, emphasizing the costs of love under social and personal strain. The film closes on a note of unresolved longing.