Presented out of competition as the closing event of the 81st Venice Film Festival

The American Backyard

2024 - Gothic

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Pupi Avati.

Bologna, 1940s. A mentally troubled young man with literary aspirations falls deeply in love with an American army auxiliary after a simple glance. A year later, by an exceptional twist of fate, he finds himself living in the American Midwest, right next door but separated by a cursed garden from the elderly mother of the soldier. The woman is desperate over the disappearance of her daughter, who, since the end of the conflict, after writing that she would marry an Italian, has not been heard from. The young man embarks on a tense search for the girl, leading him through particularly dramatic circumstances to an entirely unexpected conclusion in Italy.

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Directed by Pupi Avati Cast Filippo Scotti, Rita Tushingham, Armando De Ceccon, Roberto De Francesco, Chiara Caselli, Romano Reggiani, Cesare Cremonini, Andrea Roncato Produced by Minerva Pictures and DUEA Film, in collaboration with Rai Cinema and with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Film Commission.