Monica Bellucci is one of the most important icons of femininity (I think it is fair to say) of all time. It's at this point useless to try to count the amount of magazine covers she is been on, but her life is about so much more than being every man's dream.

If Monica always loved cinema and she has been part of it for a long time, it's right now that she is really opening her heart to it, gaining the confidence and the talent to interpret a challenging if enriching role in a documentary-movie, Rhino Season (2012), that she is presenting at the Toronto Film Festival.

Directed by Bahman Ghobadi, the movie revolves around a love story that spans 30 years and is based on the tragic tale of one of Ghobadi's Kurdish poets, who was (unfairly) incarcerated during Iran's Islamic Revolution. Sahel (interpreted by Behrouz Vossough) is sent to prison with his wife Mina (Monica Bellucci). Mina, released after 10 years of prison, is told that her husband is dead.

She leaves Iran to go to Instanbul with their two children, not knowing that Sahel is alive and will spend another 20 years in prison. Once out, he decides to find his family, the only reason why he stayed alive. But will he find them? And how to find them after so many years have passed?

When I met Monica Bellucci not long ago, she described to Swide her character role as something she loved to approach, so different from her, one of a woman with such few freedoms. I though it was clear from how she talked and even how she moved that she was ready to face something that presented her with a challenge, which enabled her to show what she is able to do if given the chance to.

From now on, we know another side of Monica: the one that almost forgets about her beauty and shows her commitment to interpret different lives that takes her out of the familiar. And I am pretty sure it's one that suits her and will see many many times again...

Written by: Elisa della Barba