Franchina, Meri, Alessia, Marcella, Wonder, Santo and Totino are trans, transvestites and a woman who have been prostituting themselves for decades in the San Berillo district of Catania, a handful of narrow, dilapidated streets left to decay for 50 years and today more than ever contested by increasingly pressing economic interests.
Here they receive clients in the 'bassi', old houses on the road, but today they risk finding themselves without a roof over their heads and ending up even further marginalized, on the Catania-Gela state road, a non-place where overpasses surmount the Catania countryside at the foot of Etna.
These prostitutes complain about the lack of a suitable law that regulates their situation and legalizes the existence of a neighborhood that is effectively a red-light district but has been illegal for over fifty years.
In the wake of the changes in the neighborhood, a politician also appears and suggests that the remaining prostitutes seek new paths, directing them to a free training course for carers.
This novelty, which some consider bullshit (a mockery), fits in with but does not change the rhythms of the particular community of San Berillo, where time is marked by the feasts dedicated to Saints and Madonnas rather than by the seasons.
Like modern-day Samaritans, the prostitutes of San Berillo tell their stories through open dialogues in the streets of their neighborhood, asserting their rights, sharing the intimacy of their families and their loneliness at the door waiting for clients.
Who would they be after the "redevelopment" of the San Berillo neighborhood? No one cares, but it's easy for everyone to imagine them next to the overly made-up masks that remain imprinted on drivers on the highways at the edge of every city.
