Hello?
Mamma's missing.
- Since when? - Two weeks ago.
I thought she was just wandering around town, as usual.
You haven't seen her for ages, she's much worse.
She's not with you, is she?
No, she's not here.
You sure?
Rino, come on, I said she's not here.
Then where'd she go?
For once, act the way she'd want you to.
Don't look for her.
What are you saying?
I'm saying what I said, it's pointless.
Learn to live on your own
and don't call me again, either.
Hello?
Did you look in her closet?
What for?
Go look, then call me back.
There's nothing there.
There's nothing there. You hear me?
- Nothing? - No.
All her clothes are gone, both winter and summer.
Her shoes are gone, everything's gone.
There's a drawer where she keeps the pictures,
she got the scissors and cut herself out of all of them.
All the ones of us together, even from when I was small.
It's your problem, I can't help you.
You always overdid it, Lila,
when we were little, and now that we're old, too.
You didn't want to just remove yourself, now, at 60,
you also wanted to cancel out the life you left behind.
I promised you I'd never do it, but I'm really angry,
and so I'll write your whole story, not just what I saw,
but what I know and what you told me,
everything you told me over the years.
This time I'm going to go all the way, too.
And we'll see who wins.
Let me see.
Look.
Look how precise and tidy Elena Greco is.
Follow her example!
Neat, always on top of the line
and no blots.
Good girl.
Greco!
That's enough! Cerullo!
Show me your notebook, let's see if you still feel like laughing!
She impressed me at once.
We were all a little bad in that class,
but only when Maestra Oliviero wasn't watching.
But not her, she was always bad.
And these?
Who wrote them?
Did you write them?
Until that moment, the most diligent, the smartest, was me.
Then came the day when things changed.
Come in!
- Come in, signora. - Good morning, miss.
Thank you, but you really shouldn't have.
Girls, stand up and say good morning to Signora Cerullo.
Good morning, Signora Cerullo.
Girls, I asked Signora Cerullo to come here
because a few days ago, just by chance,
I made a wonderful discovery,
which as a teacher, but especially as a person,
filled me with joy.
SUN
What does that say?
Don't worry, you can't know,
because in first grade no one knows how to read and write.
However...
Cerullo.
Do you know what this says?
Sun.
Good girl, that's what it says: "sun."
Cerullo, come to the blackboard.
Write "chalk."
It's wrong.
No, signora, the girl needs to practice,
that's true, but she already knows how to read and write.
Who taught her?
Not me.
Someone at home, in the building? Who could it have been?
Cerullo...
who taught you to read and write?
Me.
Go back to your seat.
Good.
Good, good.
Very good, Cerullo.
Let's add it up.
Yes, very good.
Good girl.
Five, two...
Come on, move.
You, two by two. Walk!
I didn't do anything!
Nothing?
Why do you always have it in for me?
Scanno, I'll make you repeat the year, yet again.
No! Let me go!
They'll all see what a dunce you are. Move!
No! Let me go!
Come on, stand here.
Look, this is a dunce! Look at the dunce!
Stop!
Scanno's there again.
You're a donkey,
and you can lead a donkey to water but you can't make him drink.
Donkey!
She's crazy. Now he's going to beat her up.
Stand still!
Look at the dunce!
Is it true you didn't want to be Enzo's girlfriend?
I don't want to talk about it.
Enzo told everyone I'm a liar...
Lila and I had never really spoken to each other,
although we were continuously competing with each other.
But I felt confusedly attracted to this bad girl,
even if everyone else avoided her.
There's your father.
Carmela's father was the picture of despair.
I'm going home.
A highly skilled carpenter,
he attributed his downfall to Don Achille,
who had lent him money to the point of ruining him.
Papa, let's go home.
He had taken his carpenter shop and turned it into a grocery store,
where he put his son Stefano to work, along with his wife Maria.
You're no good at anything, kid.
Move, go home.
You don't have a trade,
just your father's money, and he's no good at anything, either.
Papa, let's go home.
Are you ashamed of your father?
I'm only telling the truth.
Your father even took my blood!
- Let's go. - No, everyone needs to hear!
Don Achille is a piece of shit!
Don Achille lived on the fourth floor of the building opposite mine.
He was the ogre of fairy tales.
I had to act as if he didn't exist, neither him nor his family.
It was forbidden to approach him,
speak to him, look at him, spy on him.
Papa!
Go home, you hear me?
I said go home!
Let go of me!
Carmela, run, come to Papa!
And you... mind your own fucking business.
Everyone should know that Don Achille is a piece of shit!
He's a loan shark, a piece of shit!
Only the Solaras, Manuela and Silvio, stood up to Don Achille.
They were the owners of the one bar in the neighborhood,
and, according to my father, they wanted to take over his business
and replace him.
- Mamma, why's the undertaker here? - Cappuccio's dead.
- Who? - Antonio and Ada's father.
I'm going up to offer my condolences, you go inside.
- Want to go see the dead man? - No!
- Come on, we'll go together. - I'm too scared.
See you later.
The Cappuccios lived on the third floor of my building.
They were the poorest of all.
Melina had four children and was barely over 30,
but she looked older.
Her husband unloaded crates at the market.
I remember him as short, with proud features, very thin.
He'd gone out late at night, as always,
and at dawn the next morning he was found dead.
Maybe from overwork, maybe murdered.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now and in the hour of our death. Amen...
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
Rest in peace. Amen...
Donato Sarratore lived on the fourth floor,
he had a job with the railroad, and was all work,
family and church.
He went out of his way to help the Cappuccios,
and the neighborhood women said that he did it for Melina.
But the neighborhood men considered him strange,
because Donato wrote poems and helped his wife, Lidia, push the baby carriage.
My condolences, Melina.
The Sarratores had five children, and the first, Nino,
who was a few years older than us,
was handsome.
And I was secretly in love with him.
What are you doing here? Go home this minute!
Greco, did you see the dead man?
Did you shit your pants?
It was Don Achille who sucked the blood out of Cappuccio,
and finished him off.
That day, day of wrath,
calamity and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness.
When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Rest in peace.
Amen.
Lord have mercy...
Christ have mercy...
Something's about to happen.
- Don Achille, please! - Get your hands off me!
Alfredo didn't mean to offend you! I beg you, don't kill him!
Please, Don Achille, don't kill him!
I beg you!
Get your hands off me!
Lenù, where are you going?
Help!
Answer me, please!
Can you hear me? Help me!
Lenù, where have you been?
Move, hurry up!
Lila!
We gotta get out of here!
For a while, no one mentioned Don Achille anymore.
The war between Lidia Sarratore and Melina caused a lot of snide laughter.
Come see what Melina's up to.
- She's in love for real. - She's in love, the fool!
What are you doing?
- Give us a rest! - What's going on?
You got nothing better to do? Go back inside, mind your own business.
Ma, she's getting the laundry dirty!
She's ruining my sheets!
You're sick in the head!
Lady my ass! Slut!
Donato bent over backwards for the widow.
Melina was so grateful that her gratitude turned to love and passion.
Sarratore even did her shopping.
He really took it to heart when her husband died.
He's such a kind man.
He set up her oldest son in Gorresio's workshop.
Sarratore put in a good word.
He gave her an inch, she took a mile!
Mamma can't stand that slut
who's fallen in love with my father.
What do you expect from Melina? She's sick.
She should get mad at your father!
You're mean, that's why nobody likes you!
And what's your name?
Tina.
You're not scared of me?
Come with me, I want to show you something.
I found it in the street.
Are you brave enough?
Yes.
Bitch!
What's going on?
I'll smash your head in!
- Ugly bitch! - Melina, cut it out.
I won't cut it out, you're nothing but cheap trash.
I said cut it out, go back inside.
Just cheap trash!
- Don't make me say it. - Ugly bitch!
- Big ugly bitch! - What did you say?
Ugly bitch!
Slut!
Your husband does it behind your back!
I want to see you lying belly up in a church.
I'll kill you!
I'm crazier than you, you know?
Your husband's always getting it somewhere else.
Go back inside, I said.
Shut up and go inside.
Mamma!
Cuckold!
I'll kill you!
Mamma, stop it!
I'll kill you!
Mamma! Stop it!
Slut!
I'll kill you!
As a child, I imagined tiny animals, that came out of ponds,
the abandoned train cars, the stones, the dust,
and made their way into the water, the food, the air,
making our mothers as angry as starving dogs.
The men were always getting furious, but then they calmed down,
whereas the women flew into a rage that had no limit and no end.
Elena? Lenù!
Lenù, it's me, Mamma.
How do you feel?
- Thank God. - It was just the fright.
It's never happened to her before.
There's nothing to see here.
Maestro Ferraro and I have come up with a little contest.
It's not an exam, it's a way to see how prepared the classes are.
He'll bring the boys from fifth grade here
and even though they're older and they're all boys,
I want to show what you can do.
We've done a good job, you're well prepared,
it's a little contest between us, but it means a lot to me,
because if we don't start showing the boys now
that you're like them, better, actually, they'll crush you.
So let's show them
what we're made of.
Let's astound Maestro Ferraro.
They'll be here soon.
The representatives from our class will be Cerullo
and Greco.
Come here.
The rest of you, move back, make room.
- Come in. - May we?
- Of course. - Boys, come in.
Quickly now.
Let's go.
Come on, let's go in.
Sit down.
Our representatives are
Sarratore and Carracci.
That's Don Achilles' son!
But Carracci isn't in your class.
You said the main thing
is to understand the level of learning, not the contest, correct?
All right.
Maestra Oliviero, will you begin?
- We'll do who answers first. - All right.
The verb "to run":
indicative mode, past tense, first person singular.
- I ran. - Good.
Now let's do the verb "to go":
future tense, second person singular.
You will go.
The verb "to sew": present subjunctive, first person singular.
- That I were sewing. - Well done, Carracci.
Very good.
The capital city of Puglia.
- Bari. - Now the capital city of Liguria.
- Genoa. - Very good, Carracci.
Come on, Sarratore, you've stopped answering.
Now let's do
the first capital of Italy.
Turin.
Very good, Carracci, always good.
- Shall we go on to mental arithmetic? - As you wish.
15 times 12.
188.
No, it's 180.
Good girl.
Please, be quiet.
We're cheering for our own team now? We're not at the stadium!
Let's do 960
divided by 6.
160...
Did you say something?
No, I don't know this one.
The answer is 160.
284 divided by 4.
70.
71!
Silence!
The answer is correct, but you're not to answer from the desks.
Is that clear, Scanno?
Come on, Carracci.
Come on, Sarratore.
Now let's do 1,280
divided by 4.
320!
Please! That's enough.
Carracci, perhaps you're tired, you need to rest.
Go sit over there.
Sarratore, you're tired too, go and rest.
Scanno, since you're so smart at answering today,
maybe because you've repeated this year three times,
come up and answer.
Go to your seat, Greco.
376 divided by 94.
Well? 376 divided by 94...
- Is four. - Very good!
- You're no good! - Go sell peaches!
You got beaten by a girl.
Son of a bitch! Now I'll show you.
Scanno, watch your language!
Go sell fruit!
Scanno, what are you doing? Come outside!
- I'm not going anywhere, let go of me! - Come!
I'm gonna stick it up yours, one at a time.
What filthy language! Get out!
Get out of this classroom!
You, too, the whole class, out!
Everyone out, get out!
Come on, quickly.
Come on, everyone out.
This is the language you use? Let's go!
Come on! Out!
I'm mortified, Maestra Oliviero, I beg your pardon.
Good day.
Lila's so smart, how does she do it?
She was scared, though.
As long as Don Achille's son was there, she didn't want to win.
- She was shit scared. - It's not true.
She knew all the answers. Why didn't she say them?
When Lila decided to vanquish both Alfonso and Enzo,
she lit up like a warrior saint.
She looked so beautiful to me.
I remember that was the day I realized
that if I always followed her, at her pace,
my mother's limp would stop threatening me.
I had to behave like that girl,
and not let her out of my sight.
Now I'm gonna show you!
Throw this one.
Let's go!
Wait!
I didn't do it on purpose.
Are you all right?
I'm fine.
What happened?
Nothing.
You tell me.
I said nothing happened, Papa.
But there's a big cut on your head. Who was it?
No one, Papa.
What do you mean, no one?
Who was it?
Let's take her inside.
She never said anything,
not even a word of thanks for the stone I passed her.
But from that moment, something changed between us.
Hi, Melina.
When we grow up, I want to marry you.
Meanwhile, you want to be my girlfriend?
Well?
I can't.
Elena!
Hi.
What are you doing? Wanna come down and play?
Coming.
I'll wait here.
- Where are you going? - Downstairs.
You the one who made my brother look like an asshole?
- You gotta say sorry. - No.
- Say you're sorry. - No.
You don't get it. Say you're sorry!
- Say you're sorry! - No.
Say you're sorry!
What's so funny? My father's really pissed, you know?
What do I care?
You didn't hurt me.
You shithead, you're disgusting!
I'll rip out that shit tongue of yours!
Say you're sorry!
Leave her alone!
Just two little brats! Let's get outta here, Alfonso.
You hurt?
That asshole!
And yet you wanted to let Alfonso win.
Why?
Want to swap?
No.
Just for a little while. Nu asked me.
You want to go?
Yes.
I'd like to get some cool air, Lila.
- What are you doing? - She asked me to.
How nice and cool.
What a nice breeze.
What, don't you care?
What you do, I do.
- Now go get her. - And you go get mine.
All right, anyway I'm not scared.
You go first.
Up, down,
we always felt we were going to run into something terrible,
which, even though it had existed before us,
had always been waiting for us.
Don Achille's always in this cellar.
It's not true.
When it gets dark, he comes down here like a spider,
like a rat among the rats.
And his teeth are pointy like an animal's.
I don't believe you.
It's true, everyone says
that at night Don Achille comes
to collect the things that fall down here
and he puts them in a big black bag.
Lenù, maybe they fell here.
I'm scared, let's get the dolls and go.
You look, too.
They fell here, Lenù.
There's the hole, we just have to look for them.
Who took them? They've got to be here.
They're not.
There's nothing here, you look.
Who's that over there?
Let's go, Lila!
Let's go!
Don Achille took the dolls and put them in the black bag.
- That's not possible. - Yes, it is.
What's going on?
Can't you see? They're leaving.
Just as well, for Melina.
Donna Consiglia does this sudden move seem normal to you?
He's a railway worker, they assigned him a house in Piazza Nazionale.
- The State Railway did. - That's why he's leaving?
I'm not so sure about that.
Why?
They say his wife forced him to,
to get Melina out of the way.
Go back inside.
Mamma, stop!
She's completely lost her mind, poor woman.
Melina, calm down, you're making it worse.
Think of your kids.
Donato!
- Ma, stop it. - What will I do?
Calm down, Ma.
Donato!
- What will I do? - Don't worry.
That's enough, let's go get our dolls.
I don't want to go back down there.
Not down there.
To Don Achille's.
We can't do that.
Yes, we can.
I'm going. Are you coming or not?
No.
You're scared.
Let's go.