Salvatore Ficarra

The Illusion

1860. Giuseppe Garibaldi began from Quarto the adventure of the Thousand surrounded by the enthusiasm of the young idealists who had come from all regions of Italy, and with his loyal group of officers, among whom a new profile stands out, that of Palermo Colonel Vincenzo Giordano Orsini. Among the many militiamen recruited were two Sicilians, Domenico Tricò, a farmer who had emigrated to the North, and Rosario Spitale, an illusionist. Having landed in Sicily, at Marsala, the Thousand begin fighting with the Bourbon army, whose numerical preponderance is immediately evident. Under these conditions, it appears almost impossible for the general to breach the enemy defense and penetrate Palermo. But when he is almost forced to retreat, Garibaldi devises an ingenious plan.

From Father to Son - Life as a Fan

The Ultras are not ordinary spectators of a football match, but fans who live in a territory sacred to them: the Curva. A sort of non-place that takes the concept of social stratification and subverts it for ninety minutes: the doctor is next to the worker, the craftsman shoulder to shoulder with the lawyer or the “VIP” fan. There are those who struggle to find an identity in everyday life and those who, despite having one, want to lose it at least for the duration of a match. On those steps they are all the same, all brothers, and together they become an autonomous entity within the stadium. For them that sense of belonging is a legacy passed down from generation to generation, from father to son.

Massimo Troisi: Somebody Down There Likes Me

The life of a dying young man at the short age of only forty-one after playing the lead in Il postino. He was a brilliant stage actor before becoming an astonishing film director.

Il mio amico Massimo

The life and artistic journey of Neapolitan actor Massimo Troisi.

Strangeness

During a trip to Sicily in 1920, Luigi Pirandello meets two gravediggers-turned-playwrights rehearsing a play with their amateur dramatics. Pirandello takes an interest in the odd couple, having been suffering from writer's block while working on his eventual masterpiece, Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Once Upon a Time in Bethlehem

A thief and a priest end up magically transported in the year 0's Palestine, where they'll have to make sure that the Nativity will follow its course.

It’s the Law

A small Sicilian town elects a new, honest major but quickly learns that playing by the rules is not as easy as it seems.

Escape From Reuma Park

Old and forgotten, comedian Aldo is brought by his sons into a nursing home called Reuma Park where he finds his old friends and partners Giovanni and Giacomo.

Let's Go to the Country

Valentino and Salvo, unemployed and in search of fortune and recommendation, leave Palermo for Valentino’s home town, Monteforte, where they will try to survive the Italian crisis by opening some sort of hospice.

Belluscone: A Sicilian Story

This film tells the story of three defeats: Berlusconi’s political and human defeat in his “twilight”, the one of Ciccio Mirra, Berlusconi’s unconditional supporter, deeply rooted in an ancient culture that dies hard, and the director’s artistic defeat in an Italy that recognised itself in this “Berlusconian culture” for a long time, and probably still does.

Anche se è amore non si vede

Salvo and Valentino are two Sicilian friends who have moved to Turin, and now run a small business together. They drive foreign tourists around in a double-decker bus, and Salvo always tries to approach the pretty girls.

Women Vs Men

Anna and Piero fighting routine of a long marriage, when Piero loses his memory, Anna reconstructs his way. For its part, the concierge Rocco and his friend Michele play in a group that emulates the Beatles and face opposition from their partners. Finally, Marcello and Paola are a divorced couple who, from time to time, pretend they are still together to avoid problems. They are victims of a relentless war of sexes.

Baaria

Giuseppe Tornatore traces three generations of a Sicilian family in in the Sicilian town of Bagheria (known as Baarìa in the local Sicilian dialect), from the 1930s to the 1980s, to tell the story of the loves, dreams and delusions of an unusual community.

La matassa

Two cousins haven't spoken for almost twenty years, thanks to the enmity that their fathers feel toward one another. But an accident suddenly brings the cousins back together and thrusts them deep into the heart of the mafia.

7 and 8

6th January 1975, in an infant nursery in Palermo (Italy), for a mysterious reason, a male nurse exchanges the labels of baby number 7 and 8. Thirty-one years later Tommaso (7) and Daniele (8) meet each other by accident.

Sono cose che capitano

Ficarra & Picone return to the scene with a new work entitled I'm These things happen and directed by Giambattista Avellino. The center is the man and the phases of its most salient life: love lost or regain, the love that makes us suffer because "the difficulty is not engaged but let ...", love of which we do not notice, "I love her, but I look around and there are hundreds of females, and I am the hunter"; the death of a relative who becomes a spectacle, because the funeral in Sicily can only be representation. But Ficarra & Picone go further, they discover that there is another kind of love, another kind of death and another rebirth. She teaches him a mysterious relative, Uncle Pino.

Nati stanchi

Salvo and Valentino are two happy Sicilian friends, who do not want to work, because they know that if they find a permanent job, their girlfriends will ask them to marry them.

Ask Me If I'm Happy

Aspiring thespians Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo work dead-end jobs while nurturing the dream of staging their production of Cyrano de Bergerac, but love for the same lady will tear their friendship apart. Three years later, Giovanni and Giacomo reunite after learning that Aldo is dying.