(2007; Italian) Three women appear in brasseries, panties, and masks, turn about as ordered by an unseen man, then exit as ordered; another three follow and do the same, two being excused, leaving a blonde woman who removes her underwear as demanded for further inspection. This takes place in the past.

In the present of director/writer Giuseppe Tornatore's Hitchcockian film of dark interiors and eerie atmosphere (accentuated by Ennio Morricone's score), Irena Yaroshenko (Kseniya Rappoport), a dark-haired woman from Ukraine, fluent in Italian, arrives in the northern Italian city of Velarchi, hungry and in need of work. Nightmarish flashbacks of sexual abuse and reminiscences of Nello, a decent young man bringing her strawberries, crowd her thoughts.

The apartment owner Matteo gives her employment as a cleaning woman. Irena seems to recognize Valeria Adacher (Claudia Gerini), who has an apartment above hers, and makes every effort to befriend Valeria's maid Gina, an older woman who prefers company at the movies. In a theater Irena stealthily removes Gina's keys to the Adachers' apartment, has duplicates made, and returns the originals to the purse before Gina notices their absence.

In a room within the apartment, Valeria operates an engraver; several of the tenants are jewelers. On the spiral staircase Irena intentionally trips Gina, critically injuring her from the fall. With Matteo's recommendation (Irena has an arrangement to pay a percentage of her salary to him, but she also knows of his collecting gold dust from his tenants) and her own connivance, Irena becomes Valeria's new maid and nanny for her young daughter Thea (Clara Dossena), who has a propensity for falling.

In her memories Irena digs through a garbage dump and suffers sexual slavery at the hands of Mold, who calls her Georgia. She imagines money raining down from the ceiling of her apartment; she visits a cemetery. In the Adachers' apartment she overhears Valeria's husband Donato screaming abusive language, finds a secret compartment, and begins to earn from Thea, at first skeptical of the newcomer who can barely operate a car, trust. She finds her own apartment trashed.

Irena suspects that Valeria has never been pregnant. Visiting Gina in a nursing home, Irena apologizes to the insensate invalid. For a week in December Valeria leaves Thea in Irena's care during which time Irena binds up Thea (imagery comparing Irena's seemingly harsh treatment of the child to herself being bound and fornicated), teaching her how to fall and fight back. Irena opens the Adachers' safe, but she removes no money or valuables.

Upon Valeria's return home to Thea, Irena on her way back to her own apartment is brutally beaten by two men in Santa suits. Asking for help from Matteo, who has fallen in love with her but also afraid, she's told that she's dangerous and must depart.

After completing her turns in front of our glaze - to her horror a man she thought was dead reappears; she becomes the suspect of a homicide - as we evaluate her as worthy or worthless, Irena's mask of motives falls aside and her past is stripped away, leaving her fully revealed.

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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