Bad Weather, Hopefully

Submitted By: Flora Bonafede

Amerigo, a seventy-five-year-old man with an apparent emotional fragility, is going through a profound crisis that drives him to seek a solution outside traditional paths of care. After an unsatisfactory psychiatric consultation, he comes into contact with a young woman and an underground pharmacist, from whom he illegally obtains a powerful mix of medications. Only at the end, when he returns to the intimacy of his apartment, do we discover that the drugs are not for him, but for his son Dario, who has been in a vegetative state for ten years. The decision to end his son's life is an extreme and desperate gesture, one Amerigo cannot embrace without leaving it up to chance: if the next day brings good weather, he will act; otherwise, he will be forced to postpone. After one final, emotional embrace with his son, Amerigo goes to bed as he does every night, waiting to wake up the next morning and face whatever fate has in store.