First day of spring 1944. The Awakening - which gives the film its title - is evidently the awakening of nature, with trees and meadows in bloom. We are in Crocefieschi, inland from Genoa, and Enrico Chierici's first magnificent 16mm colour images are of Mount Castello on the slopes of which stands the little Chapel of Croce. Four girls are walking on a meadow and little Pierluigi, three years old, seems to be blossoming. The mother Clara, Enrico's wife, is lying on the meadow among the trees, with the child sitting while she picks some little flowers. We see Clara with a camera. Enrico wants to give us the impression that she is filming her son. Pierluigi picks up a dandelion and little by little moves towards the lens, blowing out the flower seeds. Enrico already knows that Clara is pregnant and in a few months the couple's second son will be born. The film shows the house where the Chierici are displaced, because it is wartime. You wouldn't think so from the nature that evokes something else and from the microcosm of the film, but these images open up hope for the future. But we must wait another year for another awakening to come with peace.