Massimo De Francovich

The Cardboard Village

When a group of African immigrants builds a cardboard village between the pews of a church soon to be closed, an elderly priest must choose between his calling and his orders.

Strong Arms

This tense thriller begins in the office of Claudia, a psychoanalyst whose sister was killed in a terrorist attack. Her newest client is Tancredi. He says that he is a journalist and that he suffers from having witnessed numerous atrocities in Bosnia. The events he describes sound just like those of Brescia, and Claudia, who still grieves for her sister, begins to wonder if Tancredi is telling the truth. Her investigation proves that he is lying, but it leads her to wonder why he has chosen her as his psychoanalyst. After talking to her husband, Claudia visits her old mentor who suggests she continue working with Tancredi but warns her not to call in the police. After that the story frequently jumps to 1998. By then Claudia and her newborn baby have become part of the witness protection program and she is preparing to testify against those involved in covering up government-sponsored terrorist activity.

The Dew Point

25-year-old carouser Carlo is sentenced to one year of community service after crashing his car while drunk and on cocaine. He has to serve his sentence at the Villa Bianca nursing home, along with other non-violent felons. He initially lives it as yet another nuisance, but spending time with Villa Bianca's residents — especially Dino, a cultured and sarcastic 80-year-old who has attempted suicide several times — will make Carlo change his outlook on the world and on life itself.

Flying

Annabì has a fear of flying, which holds back her life and acting career. When her daughter decides to study abroad, Annabì sets out to conquer her fear by taking a course designed specifically for those who are afraid of flying.

Weddings and Other Disasters

A single, independent woman finds herself organizing her sister's wedding with the help of her future brother-in-law.

The Last Days of Humanity

The last days of humanity by Karl Kraus, a mammoth drama - almost 800 pages in the Adelphi edition - staged by Luca Ronconi in the Lingotto in Turin, broadcast by Rai

The Sicilian Connection

An Italian-American pizzeria manager returns to Sicily to assassinate a judge, enlisting his honest younger brother for help. As the brother's morals clash with the task, the only way to save him is through a sacrifice that appeases the mafia.

Wherever You Are

A doctor's life takes a mysterious turn when his ambulance plunges into a river.

Who Killed Pasolini?

November 2, 1975: Pier Paolo Pasolini is murdered in the outskirts of Rome. The suspect, a 17-year-old hustler, pleads to have acted in self-defense, citing Pasolini's notorious sexual habits as proof. However, many inconsistencies start to undermine his version, pointing to him not having acted alone or even being assaulted in the first place. Was Pasolini also killed for another reason?

La vita altrui

The apparently quiet lives of four milanese bourgeois couples become intertwined

Long Live Freedom

Elections are approaching and things don't look too good for the opposition. Their leader can't stand the pressure and disappears. To avoid a scandal, the upper echelons of the party concoct a risky plan: to replace him with his identical twin, a philosopher with BPD, whose eclectic ideas and direct approach unexpectedly make the party surge in the polls.

Stories from the Chestnut Woods

In the mid-20th century, in a forested valley between Italy and Yugoslavia, a stingy widower befriends a young woman and helps her depart across the ocean to find there a better life. A chance encounter gives rise to a dreamy parable on loss, loneliness and the power of imagination.

Sin

The life of Michelangelo Buonarroti.

The Great Beauty

Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

The Prince's Manuscript

A solitary, disappointed, proud and educated old man meets and becomes the teacher of an intelligent, clumsy, middle-class, young would-be writer.