Athens – Italian cinema ‘in pink’, focusing on the changing feminine, showing in Greece

“Scusate se esisto” [Do you see me?] is a 2014 film by Riccardo Milani in the programme of a series of Italian films entitled “Il femminile che cambia” [The changing feminine], organised by the Italian Cultural Institute in Athens. The film will be screened on 20 March on the premises of the Institute at Odos Patission, 47. The film features Paola Cortellesi, Raoul Bova, Lunetta Savino and Marco Bocci. Ms Cortellesi plays a talented architect named Serena who is a former member of the ‘brain drain’ and has now returned to Italy. Originally from a small town in Abruzzo, she had an excellent university career where she finished with high marks and followed it with a master’s course, supported by the command of many foreign languages. Serena has been working in London where her talent and dedication are well acknowleged, but feels nostalgic and decides to return to Italy. When in Rome, she cannot find a job like the one she had in England. She must moonlight with three jobs, definitely not meeting her expectations nor matching her skills. She is hired as a decorator in a shop called ‘The paradise of children’s rooms’, becomes a designer of funeral chapels for the nouveaux rich, and a waitress in a high-ranking restaurant. The series began on 6 March with Mazzacurati’s 2014 release  ‘La sedia della felicita’ [The Chair of Happiness], and will close on 3 April with Turco’s 2015 film ‘L’Oriana’. The films, with subtitles in English, are screened at 7 p.m. and the entrance is free.