The ghosts of small and great History intertwine in their daily lives.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
"What does it mean to be a widow?"
Silence
"Nothing! We do everything the same as before, but alone. It means being alone. That's all!"
When my mother was widowed, I observed her in her grief and then in her rebirth. During my visits, I watched her resume tending her husband's garden. I saw her daily gestures transform into rituals, in the solitary grace of silence and absence. Thus my gaze fell upon these "ex-wives": my mother's friends and neighbors. I listened, surfacing from a fragmented memory, to the multiple and repetitive stories of their former lives and of the romantic encounters implicit in their daily routine.
If the narratives of the working class of Italian origin were carried forward by the bodies of men—by their voices, their images, their deaths—their wives were rendered invisible. Yet they too participated in this economic, social, and emotional reality.
A choral tale, Widows! immerses us in the intimacy of these women, in a sisterhood marked by tenderness and a great deal of humor. With impressionistic touches, it evokes the ghosts of the past. Because one thing is certain: despite everything, they loved and were loved.
