Corpo Celeste

Thirteen-year-old Marta and her family move back from Switzerland to their former home in southern Italy, to Reggio Calabria. While the rest of the family celebrates their return home, Marta has difficulty adjusting to her new surroundings. Reggio Calabria seems like a place that has been neglected for years. Mountains of rubbish pile up on the roadsides and unfinished buildings rise up like weeds in abandoned fields. Marta also feels neglected and sad, as she has little contact with her peers and her family offers her no support. While her mother always comes home tired from work, her older sister never misses an opportunity to criticize and patronize Marta. Apart from her family, Marta's only social contact is in communion classes. The dominance of the Catholic Church in Reggio Calabria seems alien to Marta and reinforces her feelings of loneliness. In addition, Marta is at the beginning of puberty, so the girl is not only confronted with external changes in her life, but also has to struggle with her own physical changes. The feeling of alienation manifests itself in two ways: internally and externally, Marta feels distant from her body as well as her new environment. She cannot escape either.