Caterina in the Big City 2003

Caterina Iacovoni Giulia Elettra Gorietti is a 13-year-old girl who stands at the center of a family and a city beginning to fracture. Her father, Giancarlo Iacovoni Sergio Castellitto, is an aspiring novelist and an accounting teacher whose sharp, often corrosive view of modern society masks deeper frustrations. He lives with Caterina and his wife, Agata Iacovoni Margherita Buy, in a home that has grown tense under the weight of unspoken disappointments and broken promises. The family relocates from their hillbilly country north of Rome to Giancarlo’s birthplace, a move meant to secure him a long-sought teaching position but one that only amplifies his sense of displacement and resentment.

Once in Rome, Caterina enrolls in a fast-track high school where she is quickly pulled between two powerful student cliques. The left-leaning, bohemian group is led by Margherita Rossi-Chaillet Carolina Iaquaniello, a world-wanderer with an air of intellectual authority and a personal code that Cabot-like intensity; the right-leaning faction is fronted by Daniela Germano Federica Sbrenna, the daughter of a prominent, hardline conservative figure. Margherita embraces Caterina as a new best friend, and the two roam through rallies, graves of poets, and the echoing sounds of Nick Cave, cultivating a bond that feels both intimate and fraught with possibility. The relationship soon carries a complicated nuance, as a kiss between Margherita and Caterina hints at either emerging sexuality or a pact of loyalty—an ambiguity that lingers as the girl’s loyalties begin to tilt.

As Caterina’s social world expands, a rift forms. After a drunken incident and a recent tattoo acquired with Margherita’s help, Caterina clashes with her mentor-turned-peer, drawing a wedge between the two friends and pushing Caterina toward Daniela’s circle. Daniela’s world is fenced by wealth and power, with her father, a figure implied to be closely tied to fascist-era politics, watching from the wings. The wedding Caterina attends with Daniela becomes a stark tableau: neo-fascists pay homage to Daniela’s father, underscoring a climate where ideology and privilege intertwine with social performance. There is also a subtle suggestion of a private, uneasy dynamic between Daniela and her father’s bodyguard, adding another layer of complexity to Caterina’s social education.

Amid the personal maneuverings, Giancarlo tries to leverage Caterina’s social bridges for his own stalled ambitions. He secretly passes Margherita a copy of his manuscript to slip to her mother, a maneuver designed to leverage influence through an editor, even as he clings to the idea that Caterina’s friendships might rescue his career. After a public misstep on a talk show and a disciplinary firing for striking a student, he seeks influence at Daniela Germano’s father’s office but finds no easy harbor there either. The more Caterina learns about the world around her, the more she discovers that the world she hoped to inhabit—one built on sincerity—may be built on fragile, performative walls.

The realization that Daniela and her circle “do not like” Caterina lands hard. A failed romance with a wealthy boy from Daniela’s clique seals the feeling of betrayal, and Caterina’s sense of home and belonging begins to cave in. A pivotal moment arrives when she lashes out, and in the aftermath, she finds solace with a neighboring Australian boy who has been quietly watching over the family—a watcher who calls their life a soap opera and whose presence feels curiously comforting to Caterina. She returns home to a house still mired in misery, with her mother, Agata, and her father each wrestling their own unhappiness.

The tension within the family peaks when a conversation between Agata and Fabietto (a close neighbor) reveals the longing for a life apart—Agata confesses her wish to leave Giancarlo, but fears she cannot bear to leave him to face life alone. Unbeknownst to them, Giancarlo overhears enough to frighten himself into action, and he rides away on his motorcycle. The film cuts to him as a person who simply disappears from the frame, with the family choosing to reinterpret his absence as a form of happiness elsewhere: “he doesn’t bother our family more, we like to think he’s in a place that’s making him happy.”

As Caterina moves through the summer, she is urged by Margherita to consider the conservatory of music, a path that eventually becomes her future. Before a holiday break, her Australian friend explains he will return to his homeland as his parents repair their own bond, and Caterina quietly confesses a wish that, should they meet again, she would like to be his girlfriend. The summer folds into quiet moments—playing with a second cousin on the beach, spending time with her mother and Fabietto—and ends with Caterina giving a solo performance at the conservatory, her voice rising in a finale that embodies a tentative, hopeful maturity amid the chaos she has endured.

Throughout, the film embeds a portrait of social divisions, personal disillusionments, and the stubborn persistence of a young girl who learns to navigate an urban landscape where family, friendship, desire, and ideology collide. The final image of Caterina’s ascent—singing in a conservatory performance—functions as a quiet testament to resilience, growth, and the enduring question of where one’s true place in the world might finally be found.