Based on the novel The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena by Elsa Joubert, the film tells the story of Poppie, a South African Afrikaans / xhosa woman whose life revolves around her family. When her husband Stone becomes ill and is forced to stop working, Poppie starts her desperate struggle
to stay in a country
where she is only an immigrant to be sent away. While dealing with her children’s needs, husband’s illness, and the anger of the South African community, which gives rise to the uprisings for freedom in 1976, Poppie challenges
the State and its repressive and unfair laws for the love of her own family.

An adaptation of the homonymous novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell (published in Italy by Neri Pozza), Once Upon a River is an unusual road movie where the very young protagonist, Margo, runs away along the banks of the river where she had always lived with her family after the violent death of her father.
The film is a Bildungsroman and detailed description of Deep America, far from the big cities, and it runs fluid and light through references to Mark
Twain and cinema from the 1970s. Haroula Rose, a young songwriter of Greek origins, risen in the American Midwest, is known both in her homeland and abroad. Once Upon a River is a mature debut film.

After having roved for a long time,
Phuoc decides to stop at the restaurant White Night
with the hope of finding a job and enjoying some quiet albeit for a short time. Shortly after, however, he understands the upsetting order the owner of the restaurant has set up. He is also the controlling father of Chu, the only shining soul within the crumbling walls confining the workers. By employing a rarefied and nocturnal style, and a lush and shadowy colour palette at the same time, even if it is broken by bright flashes from time to time, a story develops soaked with passion and jealousy, desire for redemption and violence, quest for independence and stability of feelings. It is a stop in a place of transition like the one the title evokes, which is at the same time concrete and metaphorical. One bumps into it while roving through the darkness of a white night where reality cannot be distinguished by one’s inner world.