The Girl Who Could Not Play

A nine-year-old Italian girl growing up in Rome during the fascist era in Italy soon learns that toys have been banned in her country. Her neighbourhood toy store is closed down. The windows are boarded up, but through the slits in the plywood she can still see the toys sitting motionless in the darkness. Among the terror of the war, the girl finds herself in turmoil as well. Her mother, who was a supporter of Il Duce (Mussolini) expects her growing girl to prepare herself for the domestic duties of a good wife. A young girl questioning her identity, must find herself amidst a world of hate. She feels unready to forget her childhood and move on. It is as if she has woken up in a world she does not recognize. She sets off on a journey to steal the toys from the closed store and distribute them in secret to the children of the neighbourhood. She sees her midnight thievery as a small piece of resistance against the fascist regime that expects her to become a childbearing mother who turns her head when someone is suffering... This is a story for those who are drawn between childhood and adulthood in a world they do not understand.