The story begins in Albania where the heroine, Helen, suffers the abuse of her father, a former member of the Albanian Communist Militia. Troubling and extreme events in her life soon cause Helen to flee her homeland for Florence, Italy where she meets up with her friend Sylvia who works as a maid for a wealthy family. She soon learns that her boyfriend in Albania has been arrested for killing her cruel father. Though at first desperate to return home to help, Helen soon forgets her boyfriend's plight as she is seduced into a wicked life of vice and perversion by the wealthy family with whom she is staying. Helen finds herself spinning out of control in a frenzied cinematic vortex of sex, beer and manipulation. Helen does eventually return home to Albania, but only to discover there, her own erotic destiny.
Direction
Salieri's weirdly ambitious genre-mashing of political drama and hardcore.
Production
Jarring Albania-to-Florence production design creating genuine unease.
Director
Mario Salieri
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Salieri was obsessed with folding Italian political history into hardcore, making his films bizarre time capsules of 90s Euro-anxiety.
The Albania-Italy migration plot mirrors real post-Communist refugee flows, making the erotic 'corruption' narrative queasily political.
IT
