Life is full of sliding doors, decisive moments, conscious choices, and unexpected events that change its course. For young Rita Levi-Montalcini, these moments led her to become the most famous Italian scientist in the world and the first Italian woman to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Thanks to a previously unpublished private archive, we will recount the coming of age of the young Rita through all the sliding doors that made her a strong and independent woman, challenging patriarchal norms and social expectations, choosing — and excelling in — a career in science instead of the conventional roles of wife and mother, achieving extraordinary accomplishments, both for her time and today, until she won the Nobel Prize. Rita herself will tell us her story, through her words written in her never-before-seen letters and diaries and in her autobiography, in an intimate and authentic portrait.
The extraordinary life of Rita Levi-Montalcini, an emblem of woman empowerment, remains relevant and inspiring today more than ever, and the 40th anniversary of her Nobel Prize in December 2026 is the ideal opportunity to tell the story for the first time of the young woman before the Nobel Prize, the formative years and coming of age that led her to become the icon we all know. The story will unfold around thematic sliding doors that highlight the key moments in her life: those of the most courageous and difficult choices, conscious and unconscious, that shaped the life of the young Rita, making her a free and very modern woman. An intimate and personal story, made possible for the first time thanks to the Levi-Montalcini family archive, an endless and precious treasure trove of private documents, letters, photographs, and 8mm films shot by Rita herself, most of which are unpublished, which her granddaughter Piera has opened up for us and for our documentary.
