AllMovie

A single mother is forced to play a waiting game on the survival of her new baby in this drama from filmmaker Francesca Comencini. Maria (Margherita Buy) is a woman in her early forties who feels uncertain about her direction in life; she's relocated to Naples and found work as a teacher, but still isn't sure what to make of her career or surroundings. Maria begins dating a man her age, Pietro (Guido Caprino), but the relationship falls apart when she shares the news that she's carrying his child. Maria is nervous about becoming a mother, a situation not helped by an short-lived affair with her doctor (Gaetano Bruno), and her anxieties are put into even sharper focus when her baby is born two months premature. The newborn's health is fragile, and Maria finds herself spending much of her time at the hospital, watching over her baby daughter in an incubator, wondering if the child will live or die and if she's ever going to feel the maternal attachment she's always expected. Lo Spazio Bianco (aka The White Space) was an official selection at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival.