L’ARMINUTA

L’arminuta by Donatella di Pietrantonio published by Einaudi is yet another book for which I thank Monica.

Arminuta is a dialect word from Abruzzo and means ‘comeback’.

Comeback, arminuta in fact, is the nickname given to the protagonist of the book that won the 2017 Campiello Prize. 

The Campiello Prize is a literary award by entrepreneurs from the Veneto region and conceived by Edilio Rusconi when he wasn’t yet publisher in 1963.

Campielli are actually small camps, or squares, typical in Venice. 

The trophy that is awarded to the winning book is in the shape of the characteristic ‘vera da pozzo’ that is often found in the centre of campielli (small squares) for the supply of water, in particular inspired by the vera da pozzo of San Trovaso in the Dorsoduro district.

The story of L’arminuta also inspired director Giuseppe Bonito.

The film starring Sofia Fiore and Carlotta De Leonardis was presented at the 2021 Film Festival in Rome and is distributed by Lucky Red.

This trailer shows me images that are very different from what I imagined when I read about them.

Have you seen the movie?

What do you think about?

The author: Donatella di Pietrantonio also won the David di Donatello Prize in 2022 for best non-original screenplay.

This ‘comeback’ forces the reader to reconsider the concept of mother.

Mothers.

I told you about someone who had two as Americo Marino and how they both embodied the true essence of being a mother.

Now I tell you about someone who has had two different dropouts.

But the concept of motherhood is so extensive and interconnected with innate love that it can also be expressed in a small, tiny Woman.

And where life deprives of maternal affection, life can give a sister.

“My sister. Like an unlikely flower, grown on a small lump of earth attached to the rock. From her I learned endurance. Now we are less alike in our features, but it is the same sense we find in this being thrown into the world. In complicity we are saved.”