Romina Power at Filming Italy Sardegna: 'Ylenia is alive, I'm waiting for her with open arms'

A festival of memories and revelations

Romina Power arrived at the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival in Cagliari to receive a career award and present her new book, 'Pensieri profondamente semplici - L'abbecedario della mia vita'. For nearly an hour, the actress and singer alternated between laughter, self-irony and poignant reflections, drawing a full house of admirers. She spoke about her early film career, the Sanremo festival she would rather watch from the sofa, and the many lives she feels she has lived. Yet one moment eclipsed all others.

The long wait for Ylenia

When the conversation turned to her eldest daughter, the smile faded. 'I am convinced that Ylenia is somewhere in the world,' Power said, her voice breaking. 'I would like it to be said that her mother is still waiting for her, still searching for her, and will welcome her with open arms, without judgment.' Ylenia Carrisi vanished in New Orleans in 1994, though some accounts place the disappearance at the end of 1993. Power revealed she deliberately avoided a recent television programme about the case on the advice of her other children.

“They told me: 'Don't watch it.' And I obeyed. They said it was terrible.”

An alphabet of a life

The book's title came spontaneously, Power told journalists, describing it as an 'abbecedario' that breaks with the classic chronological memoir.

“I wanted to avoid the usual traditional biographical structure that starts from birth, which I sometimes find boring. I preferred to follow the alphabet.”

Entries span from Amore (Love) to Ylenia, with some letters, like S, repeated for Sex, Spirituality, Hope and Sardinia. Writing, she said, gave her the uninterrupted voice that interviews often distort.

Behind the showbiz curtain

Power revisited her early career as a teen actor in 1960s Italian cinema, plucked from school at 13 to star in musicarelli. She recalled turning down a role in Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in America' because of a nude scene that was later cut, a decision she does not regret. Other anecdotes touched on working with Guillermo del Toro, meeting Cate Blanchett and Bradley Cooper, and a trip to India where she directed a short film with her son. She confessed that competition, typified by the Sanremo festival, never appealed to her: 'Music is union, not division.'

Faith, reincarnation and family roots

Raised among American, Italian and Mexican cultures, Power described a spiritual journey shaped by her belief in reincarnation and a life she feels she lived in India. Born on the same day as Mahatma Gandhi, she linked her contemplative nature to an early desire to become a nun. Her return to the public eye comes with a clear message: she wants her own words, not tabloid gossip, to define her story. At the close of the masterclass, the audience left with the image of a mother still holding the door open for a daughter she lost 32 years ago.