Theorem

A mysterious figure known as The Visitor appears at the gates of a bourgeois Milanese estate, heralded by an arm-flapping postman. The family watches in mix of curiosity and unease as this enigmatic stranger steps into their orderly life. He offers himself without demanding anything in return, unsettling the household with his presence.

The Visitor begins an intimate relationship with the maid, drawing her into a forbidden closeness that unsettles her devout conscience. He stops her from attempting suicide with a gas hose and instead offers comfort and relief. The episode marks the first of several disruptive liaisons that unsettle the family’s moral surface.

He befriends and sleeps with the frightened son, easing his doubts and giving him confidence. The boy’s mind opens to new possibilities as the stranger becomes a mentor and lover. This bond deepens despite the family’s disquiet.

The Visitor seduces the mother, awakening desires she has long suppressed. Their affair provides her with sexual fulfilment and a sense of liberation from religious and social constraints. The family’s balance begins to tilt as her world expands beyond its former confines.

He cares for and comforts the despondent father, offering a tenderness that replaces his loneliness. Their relationship becomes emotionally intimate as the father’s faith in bourgeois security erodes. The visitor’s influence stretches across the entire household.

He becomes emotionally intimate with the daughter, gradually removing her childish innocence about men. Her perceptions widen as she experiences a dangerous awakening and attachment. The family’s careful self-containment begins to crack under his pressure.

A herald returns to announce that the stranger will depart as suddenly as he arrived. His impending exit unsettles each member, foreshadowing a void that will force them to confront hidden truths. The estate itself seems to tremble at the thought of losing him.

In the absence of the visitor, the family confronts what has been kept hidden by their bourgeois trappings. Old resentments, desires, and fears surface, revealing the fragile surface of their orderly lives. Each member must decide what kind of person they will become without the stranger’s gravitational pull.

The maid returns to the rural village where she was born and is seen performing miracles. Word of these feats spreads, challenging the boundaries of ordinary life. Her actions mark a mysterious turn in her fate after leaving the estate.

She sacrifices herself by burying her body in dirt, tears of regeneration streaming down her face in ecstatic surrender. Her act becomes a transformative rite that defies conventional sense and signals an end to her earthly ties. The village mourns yet is left with an uncanny sense of renewal.

The daughter’s psyche collapses into catatonia and she is institutionalized. The absence of the Stranger deepens her withdrawal, and the family watches as her world narrows to isolation and routine. Her confinement mirrors the family's own disintegration.

The son leaves the family home to pursue art, obsessively drawing the Stranger’s face. His fixation becomes a lifelong project, a way to keep the memory of the visitor alive. The act suggests a search for identity outside the bourgeois world they inhabited.

The mother continues to redefine her life by seeking sexual encounters with young men. Her behavior signals a further erosion of the conventional family order. The household’s equilibrium collapses under the weight of her desires.

He strips himself of all material possessions, handing the factory over to its workers. He removes his clothes at a railway station, choosing naked exposure as a radical break with his former life. The act embodies a dramatic rejection of bourgeois security.

He wanders naked across the slopes of Mount Etna, screaming in primal rage and despair. The journey marks the ultimate eruption of the father’s inner turmoil as the family’s world crumbles around him. The film closes on a note of unresolved anguish and profound transformation.