Fuori (2025) is a biographical film based around Italian author Goliarda Sapienza’s brief but life-changing imprisonment due to jewellery theft. Directed by Mario Martone and starring Valeira Golino as the feminist author, Fuori tells a story of her reawakening post-incarceration.
After Sapienza’s book ‘The Art of Joy’ gets rejected from being published, she steals jewellery and lands herself in Rome’s Rebibbia prison. There she realises she feels more accepted among the inmates than she does amongst the intellectual circles that she has been trying to crack.
Among her newfound friends are the free-spirited Roberta (Matilda de Angelis), and troubled Barbara (pop star Elodie). The three ladies reconnect outside of prison, bonded through their shared experience as they endeavour to negotiate their new reality.
The back and forth nature of the movie and the lack of context can be quite frustrating at times, and the movie felt pretty self-indulgent. This is especially apparent when you realise that her entire prison experience took place over a grand total of five whole days.
I came away from the film not really knowing much more about Goliarda Sapienza than when I began. The film would have benefitted from more depth. For example, while it was not covered in the movie, Sapienza’s crime was fuelled by financial desperation and a desire for revenge from humiliation.
However, I acknowledge that a deep dive on Sapienza was not the point of the film. The film’s purpose is to emphasise the clarity and enlightenment that Sapienza experienced from her brief incarceration.
At the end of the day, the take home message to me was simple yet vital – you will not thrive until you live your truth.
Fuori is now showing as part of the ST. ALi Italian Film Festival.