About the Film

A small island in northeastern Italy, winter of early 1900. Young Agata’s baby is stillborn. In the Catholic tradition, an infant that has not taken the first breath cannot be baptized, and its soul is condemned to Limbo without a name and without peace. But Agata has heard about a place in the mountains up north where infants can be brought back to life for just that one breath necessary to baptize them. So Agata secretly leaves the island and undertakes a dangerous voyage with nothing but hope to guide her, her daughter’s small body hidden in a box.

A story of rebellion and hope, Laura Samani’s Small Body was nominated for the Golden Camera Award at the Critics’ Week section of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it made its world premiere. The multi-award-winning film centers on the journey of Agata as the confronts religious and societal rules.