There’s Still Tomorrow

The Italian film There’s Still Tomorrow was released in Italy in 2024 and will be released in China in 2025. With a Douban rating of 9.1, the film won six prizes at the 69th David Awards for Italian Cinema: Best New Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Young David Award and Audience Award.

Set in post-World War II Italy, the film opens with a black-and-white scene that lays down a heavy sense of history. As the plot progresses, the screen switches to widescreen square, as if slowly pulling open the curtain of that special era. The protagonist of the story, Delia, is a woman living at the bottom of the social ladder. She suffers from her husband’s domestic violence for a long time, and has no status in the family; she has to give her husband all the money she earns from her hard work, and she is not even allowed to eat at the same table with her family. Such a life is undoubtedly depressing and painful, but Delia’s appearance of obedience in her daughter’s eyes hides an amazing strength.

In the first half of the film, the director cleverly builds up suspense and misleads the audience into believing that this is a story about a housewife’s elopement. Delia’s meeting with her first love and the letter in her hand, all deepen this illusion. However, just when the audience is immersed in the anticipation of the elopement plot, the plot takes a shocking turn. It turns out that Delia is secretly plotting, not to run away with her lover, but to fight for women’s right to vote. This reversal is a shocking one, which instantly raises the level of the film and makes the audience marvel at the director’s narrative skills as they come to a realisation.

The film’s appeal goes beyond the brilliant reversal. It vividly shows Delia’s struggle and awakening under the double oppression of her family and society through delicate emotional portrayal. Her awakening does not happen overnight, but gradually accumulates in the trivialities of life. For example, the details such as planning to blow up her in-laws’ restaurant and seeing her father-in-law die without saying anything hint at the awakening of feminist consciousness in her heart, which is just waiting for the right time to explode. This gentle but firm strength touches the hearts of every audience.

There’s Still Tomorrow is not only a film, but also a mirror for us to see women’s struggle and awakening in history and reality. Every line in the film reminds us that your life should not be defined; your future is up to you.

Finally, a word to you:

‘Hold on to your choices, guard your rights, and believe in your tomorrow.’