The Days of Abandonment 2005

Olga, a stay-at-home mother in her late 30s, faces the sudden end of a fifteen-year marriage when Mario tells her he is leaving for another woman and their two children. At first, Olga doubts the seriousness of the claim, but she soon understands that he has left her for someone else, and the news triggers a profound internal crisis that reshapes every daily routine.

With the shock of betrayal, Olga must reconfigure her life: she returns to work and takes on the job of finishing and translating an unfinished novel, a task that feels like both a mask and a mirror for the years she spent by Mario’s side. The new presence of another woman in Mario’s life is clarified when Olga discovers that this woman is the daughter of one of Mario’s colleagues, a young Carla whom he met when she was fifteen, a detail that compounds the sting of the affair and its unraveling of old certainties.

Olga’s initial reaction turns into a full-blown breakdown as she confronts the reality of her shattered partnership. She lashes out at Mario and Carla in the street, a desperate cry that reveals the depth of her pain. What follows is a long, calloused inward journey as Olga examines the years she spent with her husband, searching for mistakes, gaps, and missed signals that could have steered him away. The truth that gradually crystallizes is painful but clear: Mario is in love with another woman, not merely dissatisfied with the marriage.

In the wake of the rupture, Olga refuses to let despair squeeze out any remaining sense of self. She throws herself into the responsibilities of life with a renewed, almost firefighting resolve. Two children require constant attention, a house needs upkeep, and a dog named Otto demands care—everyday tasks that once felt routine now test her sanity and patience. The ordinary rhythms of motherhood begin to feel alien, and Olga’s mind wrestles with childhood fears and the haunting idea that a woman without love cannot survive. She even experiments with a flirtation of her own, attempting to seduce a neighbor, though the moment collapses when he cannot sustain an erection.

The pressure mounts in August when Olga’s son Gianni falls ill with fever and her dog becomes ailing as well. Her worries amplify as she fears poisoning, while her younger daughter, Ilaria, struggles to understand her emotional storm and acts whiny in the shadow of the crisis. A technical failure—the jammed key in the door, a downed phone line, and a nearly empty apartment building—leaves Olga momentarily isolated and unable to reach help, until her downstairs neighbor finally arrives to assist and she can open the door.

Though the immediate danger passes: the son recovers and the dog dies, this series of trials leaves Olga with a crucial realization. She discovers a reserve of inner strength and a capacity to shape her own life that had been obscured by years of dependency and routine. Guided by the steady support of her neighbor, Aldo Carrano, she begins to rebuild, tackling each problem and choosing to reclaim pieces of herself, to care for her children, and to reweave civil ties with Mario through joint custody.

As time goes on, Olga resists the lure of old patterns and external matchmaking, even as friends push her toward dating. A quiet invitation to reconnect with life culminates when she attends a concert, where she sees her downstairs neighbor playing in the orchestra. That moment provokes a shift in her perspective, and she reaches out again, allowing the possibility of a new relationship to form while she continues to nurture a balanced, independent life for herself and her family.