The highest value of a woman is her silence

To leave one’s own country, to leave the family and the familiar surroundings only in order to survive is the sombre destiny of millions of people: is the destiny of the work-emigrants. Maria M. is a South Italian woman telling the story of her life. It is the story of a woman, who follows her husband to the North, in emigration, where there is a job and progress. Yet instead of a “better world” she finds coldness, indifference and misery. Due to her education she retires in her four walls, which become her prison. This isolation, of course, leads to a crisis. She breaks down, yet even the break-downs remain anonymous.The voice of Maria M. leads us through the film, yet she wanted to remain unrecognisable. She is afraid and did not want to be filmed. An Italian proverb tells us: “The highest value of a girl is her beauty, the highest value of a woman is her silence.” Other Italian emigrants helped us to “represent” Maria’s story, Maria Tucci-Lagamba, working in a supermarket in Frankfurt, mother of two children played the role of the other Maria. Her brother acts the husband. Children and people of the neighbourhood have other roles in the film.We think, that this joint and split venture even more emphasizes, what it means to be a stranger in a foreign country.Maria’s story ends in resignation: “Is that the whole life? Is it worth while?”Yet we do not want to end the film on this. We leave the film without an end to the foreign woman it is dedicated to.