Scialla!

Bruno Beltrame has given up on life, and for a good long time. Of his old talent as a writer, all that remains is just enough for him to complete on commission “books by others“, biographies of footballers and television celebrities (he is currently writing one for Tina, a famous Slovakian porn star who’s become a producer of hardcore movies). His passion for teaching has given way to the listless humdrum of private lessons given at home to equally listless students, among whom figures the fifteen year old Luca, as ignorant as the others, but lively and irreverent.

One beautiful day the boy’s mother turns up, like a ghost from the past, with a revelation that turns Bruno’s world on its head: Luca is his son, a son whose existence he never knew about… And not only: the woman is about to leave for a six month job as an aid-worker in Africa, and the boy can’t and won’t go down there with her. The woman asks Bruno to put him up in his home and take care of him, but without revealing his real identity as the boy’s father.

And so begins an unlikely living arrangement between the apathetic ex-teacher and the restless teenager; six months during which Luca will find himself face to face with a male adult figure and Bruno, despite himself, can’t help but take care of his secret son, who above all seems destined to get himself into big trouble. –Venice Film Festival