by Danila Cannamela

The movie Il padre d’Italia/ There is a Light (2017, dir. Fabio Mollo) tells the story of a road trip across Italy: Paolo and Mia, a gay man and a pregnant woman, meet by chance and travel from the north to the south. The Italian landscape becomes the setting of a narrative of displacement that challenges dominant gender-nature associations in contemporary Italy. The journey allows Mia to “move away” from her “natural” maternal role and Paolo to become the father of Mia’s daughter,