Blow to the Heart

The film revolves around the relationship between Emilio, an intelligent and sensitive fifteen-year-old boy, and his father Dario, a professor at the University of Milan.

Intertwined with the theme of personal relationships is the dramatic theme of Italian terrorism. During a visit to his grandmother in her country house, a young couple arrives, Giulia and Sandro, a student of Dario's at the University. The father, in contact with the young people, becomes cheerful and brilliant: Emilio, on the contrary, silent and shy, observes and photographs them. She appears intense and enigmatic, he aggressive and restless.

A few evenings later, in Milan, Emilio witnesses a shocking scene: after a terrorist attack on the Carabinieri, a terrorist is killed on the ground: and it is Sandro, his father's student. Emilio returns home and, without telling his family, takes the photographs taken a few days earlier in the countryside and, after observing them for a long time, follows the impulse to tell the Carabinieri what he knows about the matter. At this point there is the first rift between the father and son. Dario reproaches Emilio for his gesture which, he says, is just a useless waste of time.

The episode seems to be over, but one day Emilio sees Giulia on the street, whom the police are looking for, and follows her to a large suburban barracks where she is hiding. He tells his father about it, insisting that Giulia, if innocent, turn herself in, but Dario, once again, is evasive and urges him to forget. Emilio, by now tormented by increasingly anguished suspicions, follows Giulia again and photographs her while she meets her father. By now Emilio feels completely alone.

Emilio runs away from home, from his father. And, when the two meets again, the situation precipitates into an irreparable conflict.