Cristina Borsatti

It is the early afternoon of a summer day in the 1990s. While their parents are asleep, Lotti and Malibù (nicknames the sisters use for each other) decide to sneak out to a local bar—a spot frequented by the boy they both have a crush on. Puca, the youngest, insists on coming along, threatening to wake their parents with her screaming if they refuse. The three girls set off; as they pass the beach, Puca wanders toward the water’s edge and claims to have seen a mermaid. Once at the bar, the older sisters—preoccupied with their adolescent moods—lose sight of Puca. A search ensues, leading to a confrontation that clears the air between them, followed by a fleeting glimpse of the mermaid diving and vanishing beneath the waves; that image makes them realize their childhood is gone forever. The unexpected happens when they return home to alert their parents…

The film takes place over the course of a single night: the longest night of the year, between December 21 and 22 (the winter solstice), when the sun sets around 4:30 p.m. and rises the next day at 7:30 a.m. A long night in which the stories, destinies, anxieties, and dramas of a provincial town in the south (Potenza) intertwine, even if only briefly. Fifteen hours of uninterrupted darkness in which human destiny becomes exceptional, as the night causes the anchors of the day to be lost and four personal stories suddenly accelerate.

It is the early afternoon of a summer day in the 1990s. While their parents are asleep, Lotti and Malibù (nicknames the sisters use for each other) decide to sneak out to a local bar—a spot frequented by the boy they both have a crush on. Puca, the youngest, insists on coming along, threatening to wake their parents with her screaming if they refuse. The three girls set off; as they pass the beach, Puca wanders toward the water’s edge and claims to have seen a mermaid. Once at the bar, the older sisters—preoccupied with their adolescent moods—lose sight of Puca. A search ensues, leading to a confrontation that clears the air between them, followed by a fleeting glimpse of the mermaid diving and vanishing beneath the waves; that image makes them realize their childhood is gone forever. The unexpected happens when they return home to alert their parents…

The film takes place over the course of a single night: the longest night of the year, between December 21 and 22 (the winter solstice), when the sun sets around 4:30 p.m. and rises the next day at 7:30 a.m. A long night in which the stories, destinies, anxieties, and dramas of a provincial town in the south (Potenza) intertwine, even if only briefly. Fifteen hours of uninterrupted darkness in which human destiny becomes exceptional, as the night causes the anchors of the day to be lost and four personal stories suddenly accelerate.