Disk One:
Matteo takes a job at a psychiatric hospital where his employer describes the treatment offered, "The scientific term is logotherapy." He assigns Matteo to take patient Giorgia on walks outside the facility. (0:08)
Matteo shows photographs of Giorgia to his medical student brother Nicola, pointing out burns from electroconvulsive therapy. (0:21)
A neighbor in the town where Giorgia grew up tells the brothers about her, suggesting that her problems may have stemmed from the early loss of her mother. He describes her "obsessions," "She cleaned everything. When she was done she'd start again." (0:35)
Matteo and Nicola express concern to Giorgia's father about the electroshock treatments, but he still wants to return her to the clinic. (0:40)
Matteo reads a letter from Nicola indicating he may specialize in psychiatry when he returns: "She shouldn't be left with people who use electroshock." (1:13)
Nicola, now apparently a psychiatrist, helps a group of patients testify in court against a psychiatrist accused of mistreating them with inappropriate use of electroconvulsive therapy. (1:50) One of the patient's is unable to speak. Another patient relates that he was treated for alcoholism with electroconvulsive therapy. (1:54)
Nicola explains to his father Angelo that homosexuality is not an illness. (1:57)
Nicola, accompanied by police, inspects a psychiatric hospital where patients lie in filth, restrained to their beds. (2:19) Nicola finds Giorgia tied in her bed. She shows no indication of recognizing him or even that another person is close to her. (2:21)
Nicola explains to Matteo his photograph of Italian reformist psychiatrist Franco Basaglia. (2:34) Nicola takes Matteo to visit Giorgia in the hospital. He explains, "Doctors used to diagnose them all as schizophrenics." (2:35)
Nicola's wife Giulia tells the brothers their father has died. Matteo even more than Nicola is overcome with grief. (2:40) The funeral. (2:42)
Disk Two:
At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve Matteo removes his shoes and lets himself fall to his death from the balcony of his apartment. Family members grieve his death. (1:05)
A nurse tells Nicola at the hospital that Giorgia wants to see him. After he tells her that Sara's mother Giulia was arrested he tries to tell her that Matteo has died, but all he can say is, "Matteo. Matteo." To comfort him Giorgia touches Nicola's shoulder. (1:17)
Matteo's mother Adriana, grieving the loss of Matteo, cannot sustain attention to her job as a teacher. (1:21)
Nicola conducts a psychiatric evaluation of a prisoner who asks, "Are you here to declare me insane?" (1:36)
In Nicola's office he and Giorgia look at a photograph of Matteo taken by Matteo's lover Mirella. Nicola tells Giorgia she has long been ready to leave the hospital. (1:42)
Giorgia elopes from the hospital, and we see her walking across railroad tracks. (1:45)
Nicola finds Giorgia. He tells her he will not readmit her to the hospital, drives her to her new apartment, and they hug. (1:48)
Nicola, apparently teaching resident psychiatrists, leads a group of children. He asks a boy to read a letter that has just been delivered to him. The letter announces the death of Adriana. (2:26)
Did Nicola or even Matteo violate professional boundaries in their relationships with Giorgia? What motivated Matteo to kill himself? What might have gone wrong in his family during his childhood to explain his temperament or his suicide?