Filmmaker Paolo Licata makes his debut with the Italian coming-of-age drama “Alone with her Dreams” opening in the U.S. via Virtual Cinema on October 30, 2020. Winner of Best First Feature and Best Original Score at the 2020 Italian Golden Globe Awards, the film stars Lucia Sardo, Marta Castiglia, Ileana Rigano, Katia Greco, Claudio Collovà,Loredana Marino, Tania Bambaci, along with Federica Sarno.

Filmed on the rugged and stunningly beautiful Sicilian coast, Alone with her Dreams explores the universally timely themes of family separation because of emigration, generational conflicts and feminine repression, continuing the traditions of the Italian neorealist masters; Rossellini, Visconti, Olmi and De Sica.

Set in the late 1960’s, the film explores the issues of immigration, community values and family devotion through the eyes of a young girl, Lucia who is left behind with her grandmother, Maria while her parents emigrate to France to find work. Lucia pains to be with her family as she struggles to learn her role in the tiny, traditional village under the watchful guidance of her stern grandmother. As Lucia enters womanhood, her childhood innocence is lost to a hideous family secret and her world of childhood fragility and heartbreaking nostalgia melts into adulthood’s poignant understanding.

Dignity, strength and optimism become the traits that Lucia unknowingly inherits as she ultimately learns about her stoic grandmother’s compassion and deep nurturing love in this poignant debut from filmmaker Paolo Licata, winner of Best First Feature and Best Original Score at the 2020 Italian Golden Globes, Alone with her Dreams was also nominated for Best Actress and Best Screenplay.