During WWII, in the days leading up to Christmas, a woman arrives at an Italian Catholic boarding school for orphaned girls with a large cake and a plea for them to pray for her boyfriend, who is having an affair.

The Reno, or Italian Rhine, may not be as renowned as its Teutonic sibling. Nevertheless, as Lorenzo Pullega’s witty and playful film informs us, the banks alongside this river, which courses through northern Italy, has its own rich and undulating history.