The Double Hour

Widower Guido and lonely Sonia have just been introduced. Sonia works as a chambermaid in a hotel and Guido is a former policeman, now a security guard in a luxury villa. They don’t know much about each other, but there’s clearly a mutual attraction. Guido invites Sonia to visit the villa and arranges a nice evening together. But things turn out differently: they are surprised by robbers and Guido is shot. Sonia is wounded and survives, but she has no memory of the attack. She is alone again, grieving the death of a man she hardly knew but whom she keeps seeing, against all logic. Has she lost her mind? Or is she being given a second chance? This dark play on genre skilfully combines film noir, thriller, love story and psychological horror. The most important part of the story begins to unfold after the first half hour, when the film introduces inexplicable events and unexpected twists. Russian-born actress Ksenia Rappoport and Filippo Timi, who plays Guido, each won an acting award at the Venice IFF, where the film also took away Best Italian Film.