Sara and Nicola are married and in love. They live happily with their young daughter Anna, but when Pietro arrives the family balance is shifted, bringing all sorts of tragicomic situations.
Outlandish grandparents, friends on the verge of a nervous breakdown and questionable nannies definitely do not help. Will they manage to handle this roller-coaster of glimpses of happiness and overwhelming moments or break up?
Figli by Giuseppe Bonito is the last film Mattia Torre wrote before he died. It is a bittersweet comedy about the joys and sorrows of being a parent in modern times in Italy. An absolutely brilliant and witty film starring acclaimed actors Valerio Mastandrea and Paola Cortellesi. In 2020, the movie won 3 Nastri D’Argento – Italy’s oldest film awards – for Best Comedy, Best Actor in a Comedy (Mastandrea) and Best Actress in a Comedy (Cortellesi).
Directed by Giuseppe Bonito
Italy, 2019 – 1h 37min
Film in Italian with English subtitles
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PREVIEW (via YouTube)
GIUSEPPE BONITO
In 2012, after a long career as assistant director, Giuseppe Bonito, directed his first movie Pulce non c’è. In 2013, he was awarded the Jury Special Prize at the independent section of the Rome Film Fest “Alice nella città” and he was nominated Best New Director at the silver Ribbons. Figli, his second movie won 3 Silver Ribbons for Best Comedy, Best Actor in a Comedy (Valerio Mastandrea) and Best Actress in a Comedy (Paola Cortellesi) in 2020.
DIRECTORS NOTE
Figli (Kids) is a film by Mattia Torre.
This is a necessary premise to understand my approach to directing this movie after Mattia’s untimely death. I am saying “a film by” and not merely “written by” because I know how much Mattia put into this script. While it is, fore and foremost, a concentrate of his own life, I think it transcends personalization, and becomes a mirror for all of us.
A child turns your world upside down. You feel compelled to suddenly grow up and you fear you won’t make it. You fail to cope with big and small changes alike, but life seems not to care. Sara and Nicola’s story encapsulates this struggle, and today we watch it on the big screen through the ironic magnifying glass of comedy, just like we heard it, back when Valerio Mastandrea trended on socials, reading Mattia’s monologue “Children age you”.
That monologue was the inspiration for this movie. Figli is the funny yet moving story of two people in love who try their best to fend off the backlash of parenthood in an ever so hostile country at a chaotic time in history.
In this film, the comic register merges with a deep analysis; there is reality and then there is the perception of reality, and they mix with the subconscious, sometimes in the same scene. And it all happens with ease, with a seeming lightness that only belongs to great authors.