IFF: If Life Gives You Lemons

A schoolboy is being considered by selectors from a big football league but he is distracted by caring for his psychologically fragile mother.

Soccer is known for its emotional intensity - for the supporters certainly, and not excluding the players. Emotions are one aspect that are underplayed in "If Life Gives You Lemons", another is the setting which is largely grey. Both the mother and her son are engaged in bruising struggles, made real by their grim, drab surrounds. The pair tend a lemon orchard, and while film's title hints at optimism, the pervading sentiments are those of an embittered and dull reality. Bitter defeat.

Italian Film Festival 2019
88 mins