Farinelli

The film is about the Baroque epoch, a time of amazing music, luxurious theaters, and castrato singers.

The boy, Farinelli, is the happy owner of an amazing voice. This means that he will be rich, in demand, and...castrated without his own consent. Farinelli can no longer have children but retains the ability to desire and love. Soon, due to the lack of contraception, rich ladies begin to use an «exotic» young lover as a sex toy. This continues until Farinelli realizes that more than anything in the world, he wants exactly what he is deprived of: to have a family and children with his beloved.

The practice of castrating young singers was widespread at that time: composers wrote opera parts specifically for castrates. The operation allowed the boys to avoid puberty and, accordingly, the breakdown of their voices. There are legends that nothing could compare with the «divine» singing of castrates: they combined the advantages of male and female voices at the same time.

 Won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.