In 2009, Stephania Albertani, a 28-year-old woman hailing from the Italian lakeside town of Como, admitted to killing her older sister, burning her body to hide the crime, and then trying to also murder her parents.

Interest in the crime was heightened by Albertani’s assertion that she had no recollection of her actions, and the fact that later on, her 30-year sentence was reduced following neuro-scientific tests which found she had brain abnormalities that made her prone to violent behavior.

Italian director Leonardo Di Costanzo takes loose inspiration from the case for his fourth solo fiction feature Elisa , which world premieres in Competition in Venice today.

The director was previously in Venice with The Interval , which premiered in Orizzonti, and prison drama The Inner

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