Via delle Rose, 36

2024 | Italy, Greece | Kristian Xipolias | 15’ | Produced

Piroetta, Limbo Film, Abfab Productions, Eternal Joy Movies |

In the heart of a crumbling urban landscape, at Via delle Rose, 36, stands an old apartment building that seems to have been forgotten by time. Its walls, scarred by peeling paint and the passage of countless lives, contain stories that whisper in the dimly lit hallways—stories of solitude, resilience, and longing. Here, in this quiet and decaying corner of the city, life moves at an uncertain rhythm, suspended between nostalgia for what once was and a vague hope for something better.

Among its tenants is Rita, a young mother and agricultural worker who spends her days in the fields and her nights in exhaustion. Life has become a suffocating cycle of obligations, offering little space for dreams or change. She watches the world pass her by, feeling trapped in a routine that no longer belongs to her, her thoughts weighed down by the anxiety of an uncertain future. The apartment she shares with her son is small, the bills keep piling up, and the exhaustion of endless labor settles into her bones. But everything changes when she meets a Mental Coach, a charismatic figure who preaches self-improvement and personal transformation.

At first, Rita listens with caution, skeptical of grand promises, but soon the words of the Mental Coach begin to take root in her mind. She is drawn into the seductive rhetoric of reinvention, a vision of a life that no longer feels predetermined by circumstances. The idea of breaking free from her limitations, of shaping her own destiny, becomes intoxicating. Day by day, she starts believing that change is not only possible but necessary, and she begins to see herself through a different lens—one that suggests she can be more than just a worker, more than just a mother.

Yet, as Rita throws herself into this transformation, something unsettling begins to emerge. What starts as an aspiration for self-betterment slowly turns into an obsession. The Mental Coach’s philosophy, once a source of inspiration, begins to feel less like empowerment and more like manipulation. The people in her life—her son, her colleagues, and the aging residents of Via delle Rose, 36—watch her change with a mixture of concern and confusion. She distances herself from old routines, her priorities shift, and the sense of community that once anchored her begins to fade. Is she truly becoming free, or is she simply stepping into another kind of trap?

As Rita spirals deeper into the allure of her new mindset, she is faced with choices that could redefine her future but might also strip her of everything she once held dear. Via delle Rose, 36 is a story of quiet desperation and human vulnerability, an exploration of the fine line between self-empowerment and self-delusion. In the flickering neon lights of a dying neighborhood, where dreams and reality collide, the film questions the price of personal transformation and the invisible forces that shape the way we see ourselves.