The Italian Boys

12-year-old Renato experiences three significant events on the same day: the beginning of the Second World War, getting a bike, and witnessing the arrival of the gorgeous Malèna. Through his eyes, we see the curse of beauty and loneliness of Malena, whose husband is presumed dead, and, through his soul, we see his love for her.

Toni Chichiarelli arrives in Rome with the dream of becoming a painter, but his talent leads him elsewhere — from art galleries to state secrets. Between art, crime, and power, his signature ends up everywhere — even in the history of Italy.

In the last days of the Second World War, a deserting soldier disrupts a tranquil and isolated mountain community. For one family, his arrival brings excitement and romance, but tragedy lies in wait.

Palermo, Sicily, 1980. Mafia member Tommaso Buscetta decides to move to Brazil with his family fleeing the constant war between the different clans of the criminal organization. But when, after living several misfortunes, he is forced to return to Italy, he makes a bold decision that will change his life and the destiny of Cosa Nostra forever.

The first part of a two-part sequel to The Passion of the Christ. Plot TBA.

1976, Aldo, an explosives expert, is exiled to Italy after mining protests. There he meets Luciana, an anarchist doctor who offers to reunite him with his family, but only if he takes up his old trade: making bombs for revolutionaries.

A former narcotics smuggler, now living peaceably in the Calabrian hills, is drawn back into his family’s drug-trade dynasty by his impetuous teenage son.

In a picturesque hamlet overlooking the sea near Rome, two young men divide their time between petty thefts and football matches. Their crimes have the lightheartedness and exuberance of childhood games, until an unexpected proposal marks a change in their lives, and that of the history of Italy, with the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini.

In the exact moment they hit rock bottom, four strangers are visited by a mysterious man who gifts them a week to see how the world would be without them.

Milan, Italy, 1967. Santo Russo, a boy of Calabrian origin, arrives north with his parents and younger brother to find better living conditions. Due to an absurd misunderstanding and his father's contempt, Santo ends up in prison, where he gets a “true education.” In 1978, he and his friends Slim and Mario embark on a 15-year criminal career, a successful and ruthless spiral of robberies, kidnappings, murders and heroin smuggling.

Simone Segre, a renowned surgeon of Jewish origins, lives in a city in the north-east of Italy. A quiet life, an elegant apartment and no connection with his past. One day he finds himself assisting a man victim of a hit and run accident. But when he discovers a nazi tattoo on his chest, Simone abandons him to his destiny. Filled with guilt, he ends up tracing the man’s family: Marica, the eldest daughter; Marcello, a teenager plagued with racial hate; and little Paolo. The night will come when Marica knocks at Simone’s door and unknowingly asks for payback.

Three prostitutes live in the wasteland by the sea, where a village of outcasts has emerged. It is life in a harsh reality of poverty, ignorance, and violence. And the only ray of light in their lives is Arturo, whom they care for together. The young man is a weak-minded child in an adult body. His mother died in childbirth, and the women took him into their care as a newborn. What will the fate of this young man be in an environment he has not chosen and cannot choose because of his disability?

Salvo, a ruthless Sicilian Mafia hit man, changes his priorities after being involved in a bloody ambush.

A tale of the three funerals for the ashes of Italian writer Luigi Pirandello intertwined with a murder committed by a young Sicilian immigrant boy in 1930s Brooklyn for what is described as a surreal, grotesque, complex narrative.

It’s 1965 and Lia, a spirited young woman living in a small Sicilian town, is initially attracted to Lorenzo, the son of the most prominent (and possibly Mafia-tied) local family. His possessiveness eventually repels her. But soon after, he appears with his cronies to kidnap, rape and force her into a shotgun marriage, all with the collusion of the town’s authorities. Lia and her family refuse to accept this barbaric ‘tradition’ and, despite the constant intimidation and violence, they take their fight for Lia’s rights to court.

Based on true events of the late 60s in Italy, poet, playwright and myrmecologist Aldo Braibanti is prosecuted and sentenced to prison for the love he shares with his barely-of-age pupil and friend, Ettore. Amidst a chorus of voices of accusers, supporters and a largely hypocritical public, a single committed journalist takes on the task of piecing together the truth, between secrecy and desire, facing suspicion and censorship in the process.

In Rome it hasn’t rained for three years and the lack of water is overturning rules and habits. Through the city dying of thirst and prohibitions moves a chorus of people, young and old, marginalised and successful, victims and profiteers. Their lives are linked in a single design, while each seeks his or her deliverance.

The second part of a two-part sequel to The Passion of the Christ. Plot TBA.

Procida, a little Island in the gulf of Naples. Last days of summer. The adolescence of Domenico is coming to an end, just like his tormented relationship with Marcello. Domenico looks for hospitality at Antonio's house, his best friend, but soon he finds himself alone with the thirteen-years-old Antonio's brother, Lallo. A journey of discovery starts, between adolescence and maturity. The meeting with Sara, a transsexual woman, will bring to light the desires of the two young boys.

Teenage Elsa has leukemia, and she needs a bone marrow transplant immediately. The only compatible donor? Someone she’s never met and whose name she doesn’t even know: her father. But thanks to Edo, a boy her age she met in the hospital, outgoing and irreverent, she decides to go on and find that man. Apparently, Elsa and Edo have nothing in common except for the illness they both share, but the journey they embark on together will change their lives forever.

A home-schooled girl begins to question her domineering mother's teachings when their beliefs face the ultimate test.

45 year old Don Valter is a traditional priest who still wears an old fashioned black tunic out of nostalgia. One day young Claudio and his exuberant troupe of actors appear, proposing to perform an avant-garde show based on the Gospel's miracle of the rebirth of Lazarus*. The powerless priest is overwhelmed by this young upstart, who stirs within him emotions that will, whether he likes it or not, pull him into the modern era.

The story of two boys, one gay and the other homophobic, who are seemingly different from each other and find themselves living together. Over time they learn to appreciate each other, help each other, and go beyond appearances.

Shirley is a transvestite boy working as a prostitute with a 50-year-old woman, Baby. Living together they will finally get to know who they really are.

Civilisation is coming to an end. The death of his only relative gives a feral boy the pretext to journey beyond the confines of his home environment; only by doing this will he be able to decipher his father's journal, the most valuable artefact in his legacy. This singular contribution to the post-apocalyptic sci-fi genre tells of a humanity in crisis, while at the same time conveying the adventurous spirit of adolescence.

After Mirta dies of a drug overdose with her lover, she resuscitates alone and discovers she's part of a violent world she never knew existed.

Reckless and in love, Viviana and Modesto are bound by an uncontrollable passion. Their secret relationship ends up in front of an incredulous therapist, who'll anyway help them understanding their feelings and dealing with their desire to follow the true love.

Set in a small town in the Italian countryside, a young and handsome Alfredo returns home after a long time along with his partner Mattia, an African American man. After meeting Alfredo's grandmother, the sweet and crazy Donna Maria, the pair go to see Alfredo's father, Sor Pucci. Alfredo must break the news to his old-fashioned father about his secret. Little did he know his secret will churn into a series of unexpected comic events.