Federico Cesari

The Last Time We Were Children

Rome, summer 1943. Four children play war while the bombs of real war explode around them. Italo is the rich son of the Federal, Cosimo has his father in confinement and an atavistic hunger, Vanda is an orphan and a believer, Riccardo comes from a wealthy Jewish family. They are different but they don't know it and between them "the greatest friendship in the world" is born, impervious to the divisions of history that bloodies Europe. But on October 16 the Jewish boy is taken away by the Germans together with over a thousand people from the Ghetto. Thanks to Italo's father Federale, the three friends believe they know where he is and, to honor the "spit pact", decide to leave in secret to convince the Germans to free their friend. Yet another imaginative mission becomes reality, the three children travel alone in an Italy exhausted by war, among disbanded soldiers, deserters, occupying German troops, exhausted and hungry populations.

Non c'è campo

Prevented from using mobile phones due to the non-existent reception of the location, a school trip to a rural town becomes a life-changing experience of friendship and love for a group of Italian kids and their teacher.

Safari

Inspired by real instances of violence against LGBT+ people, Safari follows Elia, a member of a "hunting" group, who serves as an example of the dissonance felt when one is forced to suppress themselves. Emerging from this annihilation will be lacerating, but ineludible.

As in Heaven, So on Earth

1275 a.C. - A young girl is imprisoned in the dungeons of an abbey where an alchemist uses her for his strange experiments. Only a young amanuensis will try to free her at any cost. 2011 a.C. - A couple of young teenagers, Cris and Jessy, go missing in the woods while a young woman comes out from the middle of nowhere. During the first investigations, the police find an odd manuscript from a tomb. Today - Leonardo, the Chief inspector of the Police department, is in charge of the investigation of the two teenagers disappearance. He's compelled to leave his video-testimony, because in the light of his last findings, he fears for his own life.

Dog Years

Stella is a clumsy, cynical, imaginative and tormented teenage girl. After a life-changing car accident involving a dog, she convinces herself she must count her age in dog years: one year of her life counts for seven, and now that she’s turning sixteen, she is a centennial. For this reason, Stella thinks she has not much time left to live and pens a bucket list of all the things she would like to achieve before she dies.

Zvanì - Il romanzo famigliare di Giovanni Pascoli

1912. Giovanni Pascoli has died, and a train leaves from Bologna for his funeral. On board, students, officials, and family, including his sister Maria, called Mariù. It is a journey of national mourning, with people from all social classes paying homage to the poet. In Mariù’s recollections, we learn how Giovanni lived: his father’s assassination, his poverty as a youth, his political activism and fraught ties to Giosuè Carducci.

Mrs. Christmas

When Santa Claus, in the midst of an existential crisis, suddenly disappears during the holiday season, his wife Margaret must roll up her sleeves and save the most special day of the year.