Sara Petraglia's 'L'albero' captures youth's anxious refusal of time

Sara Petraglia's debut feature film 'L'albero' (The Tree) premieres in Italian cinemas, distributed by Fandango and produced by Bibi Film. The autobiographical coming-of-age story follows two 23-year-old women, Bianca (Tecla Insolia) and Angelica (Carlotta Gamba), living in Rome's Pigneto district. Bianca is obsessed with a tree as a talisman against time, while both characters resist adulthood through drug use, partying, and a symbiotic relationship. The film references Giacomo Leopardi's poetry and Alexandre Cabanel's painting 'The Fallen Angel'. After a traumatic event and Angelica's disappearance near Naples, Bianca undergoes Sert therapy and finally touches the tree, breaking through the barrier between present and future. Petraglia describes creating worlds without men or adults, where substances form relationships rather than representing hedonism or marginalization. The film is noted as Italy's most authentic response to the generational portraits found in Sally Rooney's novels.