L'Immensità

★★★★ The Observer

It’s 1970 and Rome is swinging. Unfortunately, that freedom has consequences, as Clara (Penelope Cruz), a mother of three, finds when her husband starts up an affair with his secretary. Her child Adri (Luana Giuliani) begins to seek her own freedoms, adopting her the male name “Andrea” and dressing as a boy, crossing to the outer limits of the city to make friends with migrant workers.

Penelope Cruz – playing a Spanish transplant to Bella Roma – is as mesmerising as ever, mercurial as the mother seeking her own life. Before the current age of gender expression, comes a sensitive tale that avoids the usual modes of parental oppression, instead showing parents finding new paths for themselves in their children’s freedom.