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Paolo, Luca and Giorgio (all pseudonyms) were violent with their wife or partner, but their violence frightened them, also because the women who endured it were expecting a change. Their violence wasn't bloody, it wasn't the kind we hear about on TV or read about in the papers, but the pain they inflicted on themselves and their families was nonetheless severe. They are three 'normal' men, like all of us. Their stories are of everyday life, yet deeply unsettling. These three men are different in age, origins and personality - but their lives are tied by one common problem, which brought them to cross paths in the place where they went searching for help the LDV center (Liberiamoci dalla Violenza - Let's free ourselves from violence) in Modena.
But the film is not a documentary about therapy, nor about the LDV center: it is the tale of three men, gathered by the three women who interviewed them -the director Elisabetta Lodoli, the screenwriter Federica Iacobelli and the executive producer Roberta Barboni, who have gathered interviews for two years.
The dramatic development of the film is focused on the moment in which the three men's lives “exploded” and their violence was experienced and recognized. The journey of the protagonists, whose identity cannot be revealed for reasons of privacy, takes place through the landscapes and environments of their stories. Paolo, Luca and Giorgio all have an open challenge ahead: the effort to change, to listen to themselves and to others, which perhaps will last a lifetime, and which will involve their partners as well. A reflection on conflict in relationships and the sentimental education that affects us all, men and women alike.

Elisabetta Lodoli is born in Bologna. Her love for film was strengthened and turned into a professional path after her degree in Film and Television Directing at the California lnstitute of the Arts (CALARTS) in Los Angeles, where she graduated with the short film Off Season (1988). The film was screened at the lnternational Film Festival of Turin (1988) and won the Silver Seagull award at the Bellaria Festival of ltalian lndependent Cinema (1989). In 1996 she obtained a nomination at the Rotterdam International Film Festival with the film script of La Venere di Willendorf. Later, she mainly worked for the Italian television.
Among her documentaries are: La pace a due voci (Two voices peace) (1992) on the lsrael-Palestinian conflict; Nisansala, la tranquilla (Nisansala, The Ouiet One) (2002), portrait of a young Sinhalese woman in Rome, produced by Biancafilm; PaperVision#LCHIARA CARRER.
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Elisabetta Lodoli will meet students and spectators for a talk about direction and the making of a film. The encounter is part of the events organized by the Italian Cultural Institute in Beirut on the occasion of Fare Cinema 2019.