We Will Be Forest

A universal recipe for when life feels barren. A botanical tale of closeness and caring.

Anna is mourning the end of her marriage when she runs into Maria by chance at her mother's gallery in Milan. When Maria suddenly collapses and is taken to hospital, the pair's lives are irrevocably changed.

Over the course of the long, dry summer that follows, the pair come together to convalesce. Maria, an avid gardener, observes half-dead plants on Anna's terrace, and finds solace in teaching Anna how to care for them. In doing so, the pair also begin to care for each other's loneliness, and find in the natural world a deeply restorative power – one that will open them up to new love and life.

In We Will Be Forest, Ilaria Bernardini draws on a private affair – illness, the end of a marriage, a child to protect – to bring to life a powerful poetic universe in which words sprout like branches and leaves.

Ilaria Bernardini is a writer and screenwriter. She is the author of nine novels, two graphic novels and two collections of short stories. Her novels Faremo Foresta (We Will Be Forest) and The Portrait were longlisted for Italy’s prestigious Strega Prize. Both are being adapted for film; The Portrait is currently being adapted into a movie with Pie Films and The Apartment, and We Will Be Forest is a collaboration between Bernardini and Ginevra Elkann, Olivia Musini, Ludovica Rampoldi and Carolina Cavalli.

Ilaria has also created TV shows, including Ginnaste and Ballerini (MTV) and has written for Rolling Stone, Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ. The Girls are Good has been adapted, with Bernardini, into a six-part TV series for Paramount+. She is also currently developing 12 Dinners, an original TV series for producers Lorenzo Mieli’s The Apartment and Andy Harries’ Left Bank Pictures and Sony International. For Amazon Studios, the Russo Brothers (as directors and creators) & Cattleya she wrote on international science fiction TV series, Citadel.

For producer Francesco Melzi D’Eril (Bones and All), Ilaria is developing a remake in the English language of 1970s Italian language feature film The Anonymous Venetian and 10 Days, based on Bernardini’s short story of the same name. She is continuing to develop Bernardo Bertolucci’s final script (which Ilaria co-wrote with him) for The Echo Chamber.