Penélope Cruz is dazzling in this family drama – with exquisite song and dance sequences – as a mother facing marital troubles and her child embracing his gender identity in 1970s Rome.
The incomparable Cruz (
Parallel Mothers, SFF 2021) plays Spanish expat Clara, who has married into a sprawling, affluent Italian family. Her husband, Felice, is unaffectionate and unfaithful but won’t consider divorce. When their 12-year-old (incredible newcomer Luana Giuliani) begins to identify as a boy and takes on the name Andrea, the parents react in very different ways. As Andrea develops his first crush, and Clara struggles under the strain of her relationship turmoil, the two form an increasingly strong bond. A deeply autobiographical work for director Emanuele Crialese, inspired by his own childhood journey,
L’Immensità embraces the musical and the fantastical in its tender tale of maternal love.