original title:
Prigioniero di un segreto
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
Carlo Fusco, Lorenzo De Luca, Sauro Roma, Gabriele Reale
cinematography:
editing:
costume design:
Ambra Ferretti
music:
producer:
production:
distribution:
country:
Italy
year:
2009
film run:
90'
format:
Betacam/35mm - colour
release date:
16/07/2010
In a graveyard of cars, a non-place on the edge of society and time, a wise and philosopher tramp tells the story of Stefano...
A difficult boy, troubled by a childhood trauma, Stefano expresses his hardship through acts of bullying. An action taken by the principal turns away definitively the boy by the school, projecting him into a future of illegality and violence.
Growing up, he will become the leader of a gang made up by his only friend Marco (who takes early the no return road of the drug), Ciro (a deranged happy trigger ) and himself.
The love affair with Mary runs parallel to his criminal life, and it represents the sweet and dreamy part of the character, Stefano. Together with the two other members of the gang he is involved in robberies, kidnappings and murders, attracting the attention of a mob boss, Don Alfredo .
At this time, the only choice is to join the "family", continuing in a life of villainy. Marco dies of an overdose, while Stefano is trapped with his debts of honor to Don Alfredo. Opposed by Mary, who is tired about that kind of life, Stefano is finally persuaded to do something to get out of that. But an other commissioned blow, falls in a massacre, leading Ciro to death, and Stefano to the prison.
Reluctantly moved away from Stefano for his own good, Mary goes back a life and begins to work in a radio, where she knows George, the director of the issuer, her future partner.
The distant image of Mary, will be for Stefano, during all the period of detention, the most beloved memory, but at the same time, it will be also the reason for yearning and guilt.
In prison Stefano writes a diary, which he guards jealously and re-reads often, intriguing the boss prison, Don Vito, who is convinced that the diary contains confidential information on the leaders of the mafia and thinks of using Sacristan, the cellmate of Stefano, to obtain it. Sexton, to defend the privacy of his friend disobeys the orders of the boss, and for this reason he will be brutally killed. The harsh hierarchies and unjustifiable abuses within the prison, as well as the murder of his cellmate, push the protagonist to a long reflection on himself and on his own faults.
Paid off his debt to justice, Stefano will have to deal with a past that is still open that is waiting for him outside the prison...