Italian Studies

Alina’s journey in the film is a disorienting and ambiguous experience that blurs the lines between reality, memory, and imagination. Throughout the story, she appears to suffer from sudden memory loss, unable to recall her identity or her past, which is depicted as both a literal and metaphorical disappearance. Her time in New York—meeting Simon and the teenagers, reflecting on her own stories—could be a real experience, a constructed hallucination, or a mixture of both. The film suggests that her memories and experiences may be fluid, unreliable, and perhaps even self-created to serve some deeper purpose—possibly her writing or her subconscious desire for detachment from her past.

At the end, Alina is back in London and appears to have regained a sense of her self and her memories. She recalls her encounters with the teenagers and, though she struggles to find concrete evidence that her experiences in New York were real, she ultimately chooses to accept the uncertainty. She expresses a desire to leave certain things unresolved, preferring to live in the present rather than chase a possibly lost past. Her refusal to reconnect with Simon or clarify her history suggests she has found some peace in acknowledging her fragmented memory and embracing the now.

The film’s ending maintains its ambiguity, leaving open the question of whether her memories were restored or simply reimagined. It hints that her feelings of loss, confusion, and the urge to reconstruct her identity are universal, reflecting how human memory itself can be fleeting, elusive, and sometimes a story we tell ourselves. Ultimately, Italian Studies explores the fragile nature of identity and memory, emphasizing that sometimes the things we hold onto—or choose to let go—are what shape who we are in the present.

Last Updated: June 25, 2025 at 08:59