Bambine

Early 1990s. Three young girls vanish within a few weeks, as if swallowed by the fog that often blankets Ravenna—a city where the landscapes of the port, the seafront, and the industrial zone form a strange contrast with the tranquil “parlor” of the historic center. Suddenly, a cloud of fear descends, darkening everyday life and spreading anxiety, disbelief, and a sense of helplessness, which intensifies as the story—through a relentless succession of twists—takes on the contours of pure horror.

It falls to Carlo Bertelli, a provincial journalist dragging through a life in crisis without enthusiasm, to immerse himself, unwillingly, in this terrible story—driven primarily by the need to protect little Chiara, the daughter of his best friend who died at sea. Ruthless and tender, moving and harrowing, Bambine is a noir full of suspense and lucid explorations of Evil, and at the same time—as Carlo Lucarelli notes in his Preface—“a splendid story about friendship, love, and the disappointments of a restless generation in a land described as ‘sated and desperate.’”