Mirko, Andrea and Damiano are almost in their thirties and have never tried oysters. A heist that seems impossible to fail is their chance to no longer be seen as losers. But when the situation gets complicated, they discover what they are willing to do to win that fish dinner.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES:
Gold and Cash was born from the merging of various inspirations collected over the years: characters from my childhood, incidents told by friends, and news stories. The result is three protagonists who embody the hunger for revenge of the new generations, especially those from disadvantaged social classes, but who clash with a world that fuels this desire without offering any possibilities. This incongruity gives life to both the dramatic and comic aspects of the story, the more realistic vein and the more grotesque one.
The methods as well as the results become absurd, and everything that at first seems playful ends up showing the violence inherent in the obsession with ‘always wanting more’.
The story is told within the moral and human lens through which the characters view reality. Their highly individualistic view distorts the world into an arena where life is a struggle between overpowering or being overpowered and each person thinks only of their own benefit. A society made up of winners and losers where the former do nothing but exhibit their wealth and the latter do nothing but desire it. They have always been part of the losers, but now they can't take it anymore.
With Gold and Cash, I wanted to create a tone that combined various genres and offered more perspectives on a well-known social reality. The characters' realism is given by the emotional facets they go through and the unstable balance between their eagerness for a better life and the frustration of being excluded from it. Mirko, Andrea and Damiano (but also Paola) always try to find the easiest solution and always refuse responsibility, blaming someone else when their choices turn out to be problematic.
The first draft of the screenplay dates back to early 2022 and several attempts were made to achieve the production of this short film. The actual shooting took place in June 2024, after a long preparation with a crew of young up-and-coming professionals and established department heads, with whom I had worked in the past. It was a wonderful and very formative experience, where creative and professional relationships grew and every single person felt involved in the project.
The casting process was based both on individual characteristics and on the chemistry with the other performers, with the aim of finding a well-balanced, close-knit trio of protagonists. We focused carefully on accents, utilising three different backgrounds (Davide Iachini - from Lazio, Andrea Fuorto - from Abruzzo, Federico Mainardi - from Lombardy) to create characters even more out of place, even more marginalised by being far from their places of origin. The actors' input was also crucial on set, where we managed to integrate some improvisation cues into the solid writing of the scenes. The work with Francesca Colucci also went through various stages of preparation, including numerous rehearsals with an established stunt consultant, in order to build up the scene with the katana, guaranteeing safety and credibility to the action.
Gold and Cash was a journey of growth for me, in every way. I discovered the limits and possibilities of a narrative that integrates various tones and I was able to give voice to ideas that I had been cherishing for years. The will that moves the characters, even if misplaced and with questionable methods, is the desire to show themselves to the world and fulfil an impossible dream. In this need lies the emotional heart of the project, which led me to realize it despite all the adversities; but I also believe it is a human feeling that leads the viewer to empathize with the characters, not because he shares their choices, but because he knows that when you are desperate there is nothing left but the hope of a dream. They make bad choices, but it is up to us as a collective society to reflect on the consequences of what we are led to desire.