In the summer of 1975 in central Italy, a 13-year-old girl (newcomer Sofia Fiore), suitcase in one hand and a bag of shoes in the other, knocks at the door of a farmstead. So begins the story of a teenager who lost everything overnight: a comfortable home, her closest friends, the unconditional love of her parents – or rather the people she believed were her parents.

For “l’Arminuta” as her peers call her, a new and very different life begins. Her new home is smaller and darker than that of her wealthier adoptive parents, there are brothers everywhere and little food on the table to share. Faced with a new life in a new daily environment, she must also grapple with the feelings of abandonment brought on by her reunion with the family she never knew.

Adapted from a 2017 best-selling novel by Donatella Di Pietrantonio and rendered with stunning emotional clarity, Giuseppe Bonito’s third feature A GIRL RETURNED is a thoughtful examination of childhood, motherhood, and the ties that bind.

Italian language, English subtitles.