Sabina has a regular life. She is satisfied with her job and her love for Franco. Lately nightmares start disturbing her, and almost in the same time she discovers to be pregnant. Step by step she remembers her childhood spent within a severe middle-class family. But a big secret is hidden within her heart. Sabina wants to contact again her brother, a University teacher in the US, to try to understand what is happened in their past. What is the secret? She is determined to bring clarity and serenity in her life. She finally manages to free herself from her "beast in the heart".
Acting
Mezzogiorno's face does the work of ten monologues.
Direction
Comencini builds dread through domestic silence, not spectacle.
Director
Cristina Comencini
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Comencini adapted her own novel, part of a wave of Italian cinema confronting historic silence around incest and abuse.
The title's Italian original 'La Bestia Nel Cuore' literally means 'The Beast in the Heart' — the English title obscures this metaphor entirely.
IT
