JURI FERRI

1965. Katrien is a young Dutch woman who moved to the birthplace of her husband Sergio, in the province of Bergamo. She struggles to adjust to life in the small town, also having to face the distrust of the fellow villagers towards a foreigner. Living so far from her family often makes her feel lonely: she finds herself having to raise her two-year-old son, Dante, with little support. Sergio, seen by many in the village as a hothead, struggles to find employment. He is too absorbed in his own problems to understand the difficulties faced by his wife. Their already turbulent relationship turns sour when Sergio decides to ask the parish priest, Don Anselmo, to help him find a job. The priest sets a condition: Dante must be baptized within the Catholic Church, something Katrien has always opposed. After Sergio decides to comply to the priest's request, Katrien begins to question her choices and her future with Sergio.

Although entirely fictional, L'olandesa is inspired by the experiences of my grandmother, who moved from the Netherlands to a small town in the province of Bergamo in the 1960s, after marrying my grandfather. Her stories inspired me to explore how a couple like them could find a way to live in those years, in a rural environment that was still closed to the outside world. The story of Sergio and Katrien fascinates me because they have to confront both the internal tensions of finding a balance between their two different cultures, and the external pressures that push them to conform to the culture around them. The heart of the story centers on two people who must rediscover how to rely on each other: they will have to learn that the harmony and affection that unite them are stronger than the conflicts and expectations that want to drive them apart.