Lionello Santi

Mother

The social ferment in late 19th century Russia which led to the 1917 Russian Revolution is movingly portrayed in this lengthy historical drama, which is very faithful to the 1907 novel The Mother by the celebrated Marxist writer Maxim Gorky (1868-1936). In the story, "the mother" (Inna Tchourikova) has no other recourse than to watch her decent, kindly husband turn into an animalistic, drunken brute as a result of working in the inhuman conditions of a steel mill in the town of Sormovo. When he begins to express his suppressed rage by beating her, she is defended by her teenaged son Pavel (depicted Viktor Rakov as an adult, Sacha Chichonok as a boy). After his father's death, Pavel is forced to go to work in the same factory. However, Pavel and his friends begin investigating Marxism and socialist thought, and work to organize their fellow workers.

Vado a riprendermi il gatto

Having always lived in solitude, working the land (his only company being a cat), one day Alceo meets Ester, a girl much younger than him.

Mai con le donne

Gino Chelli spends his days between work, his friend Beppe and his contentious girlfriend Tea. He spends the nights dreaming about her former classmate Liza, who now is a famous star. One day, she comes back in town.

Ladies & Gentlemen

Catello Coppola is a journalist dreaming a scoop to revive his career. Unexpected help comes following the death of a friend, who appears to him in a dream, promising to give him advance notice of the next day's news.

Life Is Beautiful

Antonio is a retired aviator in an unnamed country ruled by a military junta which violently suppresses any free thought. He falls in love with a member of the resistance against the dictatorship. He is arrested but escapes with his love. The code word among the resisters is: ‘Life is Beautiful’.

Eye in the Labyrinth

Julie is disturbed by the disappearance of her psychiatrist boyfriend Luca following a bizarre dream where she witnessed him murdered. She travels to a seaside village where he might be and encounters Frank, who tells her Luca has indeed been there. Julie's investigation leads her to the house of Gerta, where the mystery deepens among the odd characters residing at this artists enclave.

Attack and Retreat

Chronicle of the unheralded and unsuccessful invasion of the Soviet Union by the Italian army during World War II.

Hands over the City

Prior to a city council election, the collapse of a building leaves a land developer and his political backers defending themselves against a scandal.

The Basilisks

The uneventful lives of three young men who live in a small, poverty-stricken village in southern Italy.

Black Sabbath

Three short tales of supernatural horror. In “The Telephone,” a woman is plagued by threatening phone calls. In "The Wurdalak,” a family is preyed upon by vampiric monsters. In “The Drop of Water,” a deceased medium wreaks havoc on the living.

Attack of the Normans

An evil duke kidnaps the good king and tries to make the virtuous queen his bride and the peasants take arms.

Erik the Conqueror

In the 9th Century, two Viking children, separated since their early childhood with one raised by the British and the other by Vikings, meet after nearly 20 years as rivals as war breaks out between Britian and the Vikings for control of England.

Black Sunday

A vengeful witch, Asa Vajda, and her fiendish servant, Igor Jauvitch, return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike descendant: Katia. Only a handsome doctor with the help of family members stand in her way.

The Giant of Marathon

A Greek soldier leads the fight against an invading Persian army.

Caltiki, the Immortal Monster

Academic researchers are chased by a nuclear-hot specimen of ancient Mayan blob.