It’s 1946. Italy is still reeling from World War II, but the signs of national recovery are around every corner in Rome. Poverty is still rampant, but the street markets are bustling. The cafe culture is returning. American GIs maintain order.

Also, it’s May, so potentially disruptive elections are a few weeks away. The country is changing, which is naturally a threat to the status quo, shaky as it is.

Representing that status quo is Delia (Paola Cortellesi), a working-class mother of three, scrounging up money doing a range of odd jobs so that daughter Marcella (Romana Maggiora Vergano) can have a nice wedding dress. Evidently, the young woman’s value is restricted to her performance as rich-husband bait. Delia’s day often begins with a brutal smack across the face from her brute of a husband, Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea), usually followed by name-calling and demands that she take care of his equally abusive father Ottorino (Giorgio Colangeli). When Delia isn’t dealing with Ivano’s violence, she flirts with her old flame Nino (Vinicio Marchioni), and awkwardly befriends William (Yonv Joseph), a soldier who worries about her black-and-blue skin.

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Then a mysterious letter arrives in the mail — its contents energizing Delia enough to get through the routine abuse. She keeps it hidden from Ivano.

Pulling triple-duty as director, writer and star, popular comedian Cortellesi makes her feature debut with There’s Still Tomorrow. The film has been floating around the festival and art-house circuits since it opened the Rome Film Festival in 2023 and went on to become a sensational clarion call for battling domestic violence and a galvanizing feminist force in Italy. It outgrossed Barbie in its home country when it opened months later. Despite a borderline narrative bait-and-switch late in the film, it’s easy to see why the film struck a nerve.

There’s Still Tomorrow shamelessly references Italian neorealism — in Davide Leone’s lush black-and-white cinematography as well as in Cortellesi’s lived-in, bruised performance as a woman who quickly realizes that while change is on the horizon, it’s a slow march. The film really picks up steam when Delia receives the enigmatic letter and sets out to forge a path that’s different from her own for Marcella.

For some, the mix of comedy, musical and domestic violence might be a bridge too far, but Cortellesi has a firm grasp on the material, using the comedic elements as bitter metaphor. Delia and Ivano’s cycle of “error”, violence and repentance is staged as a dance because that’s what it is — a series of repeated moves the two run through daily.

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And yet, the levity in There’s Still Tomorrow is welcome, and in many ways it makes the closing moments that much more powerful. As she seriously contemplates running away with Nico, Delia shares some chocolate with him — the same that William gave her. The moment begins with a fantastical swirling camera, and maybe, we think, Delia is going to grab her chance. But reality sets in, and the piece of chocolate morphs into a punch line. The lunch with Marcella’s fiance (Francesco Centorame) and his elitist family is almost farcical in how we know it’s going to end badly.

The film is a high-wire act, but Cortellesi knows what she wants to say and how best to say it. After all, 20 David di Donatello award nominations can’t be wrong.