original title:
Nero bifamiliare
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
music:
producer:
production:
Lupin Film, Moviemax, Mirakhan Entertainment
distribution:
country:
Italy
year:
2006
film run:
90'
format:
35mm - colour
release date:
13/04/2007
festivals & awards:
A caustic black comedy that talks about vices, the obsessions and the weaknesses of a dishonest and hyperactive society. A society reluctant to give up dreaming and in constant pursuit of emotions and feelings, which, however, run the risk of being crushed by daily reality. Marina and Vittorio are determined to change their lives. And so they decide to buy a house in "Peaceful Valley" an elegant condominium. Marina is beaming with joy, roses grow in her garden, the children’s room is ready and Vittorio is going to quit his job as insurer, in order to start a promising activity on the internet. Around these characters we also find Carmine, a caretaker with a keen interest in erotic comics, Slatko and Bruna, a married couple of mysterious neighbors, Carlo Mobili, the rich and successful friend, and Marina’s protective mother. Something threatens Marina and Vittorio’s perfect idyll: the mysterious married couple, who move in next door. Slatko and Bruna - he’s from Romania, while she, as Carmine tells us, "apparently works in a motel... for truck drivers’ - literally burst into Marina and Vittorio’s lives, with their noise, their disorder, the stink of their barbecues, and their daring impudence. The two worlds are interposed, while, at the same time, curiosity and greed penetrate into the relationships of the two couples. Bruna’s overflowing sexuality bursts into Vittorio’s desires; Slatko is more and more curious about Marina, about her world, and her different music. The situation increasingly worsens, especially when Vittorio and Marina’s house is robbed of all their precious belongings. Who is guilty? Vittorio is more and more convinced that it is his so greatly hated neighbor. He starts spying on him and, in a crescendo of insane obsession, becomes more and more obsessed and alienated from himself, his relationship with Marina, and his job. He plunges into a vortex of senseless actions until he himself becomes the different one, the intruder, in everyone else’s eyes. The search for justice becomes a blind desire for revenge, leading Vittorio to plot his rival’s murder, with the help of "Skull"... What started out as a humdrum everyday world in a lower middle-class scenario, ends up a complete reversal of the basic values of all these apparently normal lives. This film penetrates the madness behind appearances, and ends in breathtaking suspense during the World Football Cup.