The ladies who lunch in Gianni Di Gregorio’s luminous sliver of a film, “Mid-August Lunch,” are Roman women in their 80s and beyond who have gathered in a small condominium in the Trastevere neighborhood. The modest apartment is the home of Gianni (Di Gregorio), an unemployed 50-something bachelor, and his 93-year-old mother, Valeria (Valeria De Franciscis).

A dutiful and devoted son, Gianni, who has a mild heart ailment, always carries a glass of white wine in his hand. He is first seen patiently reading “The Three Musketeers” aloud to Valeria, an elegantly dres­sed and coiffed woman whose cavernous, deeply tanned face is beautiful despite weather-beaten skin.

When the condominium’s manager, Luigi (Alfonso Santagata), informs Gianni that his bill for electricity and other services has remained unpaid for three years, a deal is struck. If Gianni will look after Luigi’s mother, Marina (Marina Cacciotti), for a couple of days around Ferragosto, the Italian holiday celebrated on August 15, his debts will be forgiven.

To Gianni’s mild chagrin, Luigi arrives not only with his mother but also with her sister, Maria (Maria Calì). Coincidentally, Gianni’s doctor (Marcello Ottolenghi) pays a visit to monitor Gianni’s blood pressure and prevails on him to take in his own mother, Grazia (Grazia Cesarini Sforza), who is afflicted with ailments that require several medications. Suddenly, Gianni is running what amounts to a temporary geriatric ward.

How these four elderly women interact and turn Gianni into a willing servant is the substance of the film - a slender Chekhovian vignette about the joys and regrets of old age and the pleasures of sociability. All women emerge as vital, quirky, independent spirits who eventually bond, after some initial friction.