Elena, a professional biologist and Ida, a stewardess, two cousins, see each other for the first time in fifteen years. Their relationship had been disrupted when Elena married Enrico, Ida’s ex-fiancé. Elena suffers bulemia and spends whole nights eating vast amounts of food in an attempt to forget the crisis in her marriage. When she notices that her husband is aiming for a divorce, she ventilates her aggression at Ida and throws her out of the house. When Ida reaches the railway station, she realises what has happened. She returns to the house and watches Elena’s desperation from over the road.The director did not decide to make a film about bulemia to focus attention on a contemporary problem, but rather because she wanted to examine the contradictory aspects of being a woman. Elisabetta Lodoli: ‘Bulemia is the modern expression of the conflict between body and soul. For me it became an “pretext” to show lack of affection and the impotence of a woman to express her own feelings. I tried to make a kind of psychological thriller around this illness.’ The title refers to a statuette dating from 20,000 to 30,000 years BC that was discovered on the banks of the Danube. It is the oldest portrayal of the human form: a sturdy woman with large breasts and an enormous belly, that is known as the Venus of Willendorf.
