Filumena Marturano

After twenty-five years of unwedded bliss with the wealthy Domenico, Filumena Marturano finds out that her loose “master” intends to marry a young filly. Insulted, she chooses deception: she feigns a terminal illness and claims marriage is her last wish. But as soon as the priest is out of the house, Filumena “is cured” and tries to achieve everything she had to give up in her life. She admits to Domenico that she's a mother of three grown-up sons whom she raised with his money, and demands that they now get his last name. Domenico wants the marriage annulled, but Filumena says that one of the sons is his. Which one?

Eduardo de Filippo (1900-1984), the versatile Italian theatre and film artist, achieved world fame as a dramatist with his plays written in the Neapolitan dialect. In them, he expressed compassion with all who suffer from poverty, injustice and humiliation. In the tragicomic Filumena Marturano he didn't only pose the challenging question whether a cocotte has the right to marry at all, but also problematised the situation and perception of women and illegitimate children in the midst of the Catholic patriarchal Italy. However the key point of the “old” story – Children are children and they're all the same – is still pertinent today …