Genre: Drama

Language: Italian with English Subtitles

Director: Matteo Garrone

Cast: Vitaliano Trevisan & Michela Cescon

Released: 2004

Duration: 100 Minutes

Rating: M content may disturb

Distribution: Palace Films

Berlin International Film festival 2004: Silver Bear for Best score, nominated for Best film; 2004 Italian Academy Award (David di Donatello): Best music plus 4 nominations.

“Primo amore” is an atmospheric thriller about fixation and the inability to love; it’s the story of a man who’s the victim of his own instincts, author of his own downfall. Vittorio is an agitated and restless man; he can only manage to love a woman if she completely fits his aesthetic criteria; being extremely thin. Sonia is a sweet, intelligent young girl working as a shop assistant and artist’s model, who meets Vittorio on a blind date. A goldsmith by trade, Vittorio is obsessed with the desire to shape Sonia's body and mind as fire does to gold. What follows is an obsessive love affair revolving around Sonia’s weight; a reciprocal masochistic game involving food. When the two lovers isolate themselves in a country house in the Veneto hills, they dangerously lose touch with reality and tread a dangerous path to the edge of an abyss. Based on astonishing true events.

From the novel "Il Cacciatore di Anoressiche (The Hunter of the Anorexic)" by Carlo Mariolini.

“The thoroughly lived-in and subtle performances (especially Michela Cescon in a no-holds-barred performance) make sure First love never veers into a diatribe or melodrama.” Kent Turner, Film Forward