What could have played like a made-for-television movie proves more complicated and involving. Despite the satisfying outcome, however, the end credits make it clear that married heterosexual couples still have the edge when it comes to adoption in Italy.

Based on a true story, this follows the struggle of Luca (Pierluigi Gigante), a gay Roman Catholic in Italy, to adopt a child. He lives with his partner Lorenzo (Alessandro Piavani) and runs a community facility that looks after people with conditions such as Down’s Syndrome. The two men are keen to have a child that will carry their own names, but despite that being perfectly legal they have faced consistent prejudice from the authorities and are routinely being rejected. Then he hears of one baby, Alba, who has been abandoned at birth by her mother after she was born with Down’s. He attempts to offer her a stable and loving home, but despite the fact that her condition is deterring (37) other sets of potential parents, he is rejected. This puts considerable strain on his relationship and swiftly he finds himself alone. Fortunately, he encounters a feisty single-mum lawyer “Teresa” (Teresa Saponangelo) who agrees to help him take up the cudgels. What chance they can buck the system and manage to adopt the infant? Some of this is shot in a faux-documentary style and that, I found, did rather sterilise the human impact of much of this. Also, it plays a little to the sentiment of the scenario a little too bluntly for me, and overly relies on our own (presumed) innate reaction to this ridiculous situation rather than use the acting, dialogue and drama to convince us of the obvious…

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