A Soul Split in Two 1993

Pietro Di Leo, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, is a security officer at a Milan department store, separated from his wife and with a son he only sees on weekends. He endures a life of deep discomfort, marked by psychosomatic symptoms—nosebleeds, sudden outbursts of anger, and vivid visions—that puncture his daily routine and hint at a deeper unease beneath his bourgeois exterior.

One day he meets Pabe, a young Roma who has to get rid of the warehouse life. When she is caught stealing a perfume, Pietro’s curiosity grows into a genuine fascination, and he resolves to help her. He testifies in her theft trial with false testimony, and then the two flee Milan, moving from hotel to hotel with no clear destination, driven by a bond that begins to blur the line between pity and desire.

At first, Pabe resists intimacy, still clinging to the Roma identity she has worn so long, keeping her traditional clothes and finding it hard to adjust to living in a closed room where begging or stealing is no longer allowed. Her transformation accelerates as the pair tries to build a future together, even as the past pushes back from the margins of their new life.

Having failed to work as a seamstress, Pabe is finally hired as a hotel waitress after she cuts her hair, dons ordinary clothes, removes her earrings, and passes herself off as an Italian raised with a Greek accent. This shift marks a turning point in the evolution of their romance, moving from private fears to public embarrassments as they navigate sympathy, suspicion, and the gaze of a world that notices only their differences.

Their life takes a dramatic turn when they move to Ancona and marry, though it remains unclear whether the ceremony is civil or symbolic. Pietro’s ex-father-in-law approves of the union and fosters an emotional bond with the girl, smoothing some of the tensions that come with leaving Milan and redefining family ties in a fragile new chapter of their lives.

Pietro becomes fully absorbed in this new existence: his psychosomatic attacks disappear, he sheds his bourgeois suit, and his mustache grows longer, signaling a personal rebirth. Pabe, who was a virgin and perhaps now pregnant, experiences love and happiness, but she cannot escape the constant moral violence around her. She witnesses a bar expel a Roma while she sits nearby, a stark reminder of prejudice; she also encounters another Roma in poverty who stops her for money and, upon recognizing her Roma identity, tries to engage her differently. A hotel guest also makes a violent, predatory move toward her, underscoring the fragility of safety in their improvised life.

Tragedy deepens when Pietro’s father-in-law is found dead in bed, a death that shocks Pabe and casts a heavy emotional shadow over the funeral, which the girl describes with a striking reflection on what death means and the significance of such rites for a community she had grown to care for.

The tension comes to a head when the hotel manager asks her if the rumors about her ethnicity are true, signaling that she could be the first person suspected of theft. This accusation compels Pabe to make a painful choice: she leaves the apartment and returns to Milan’s nomad camp from which she had escaped, but upon stepping out of the taxi she discovers that the camp is no longer there, leaving her stranded in a world that has moved on without her.