It’s a cold night in January when two young thieves, Beatrice Navi and Guido Cenere, appear on an island, are surprised by the custodian, Giovanni Marengadi, and a Dobermann, Pangloss, and are taken to the owners of the luxurious villa in the middle of the island, called “delle Ginestre”. An odd family, the Reffis, live in the villa. Antonio, the paterfamilias, is a former orchestra conductor with an ironic take on life and, above all, the lives of his two restless children: Carla is a successful author, waiting to hear from her publisher about her next novel; while Celestino is a former doctor enamored of philosophy and mathematics. He’s a man with a past, obsessed with a violinist who has left him with super 8 pictures from long ago. The villa also has a poker-faced governess, Jole, and her husband Vittorio, Carla’s secretary. Celestino Reffi proposes a pact with the two kids on the run – from what, no one knows. He won’t report them, he’ll hide them from police commissioner Càrrua, hot on their trail. In exchange, they must take a sort of “class in education,” which Celestino is sure will “change their lives.” But what will really change everyone’s fates is the arrival of the two outlaws at the villa wreathed in fog and surrounded by water.
based on the novel of the same name
by Giorgio Scerbanenco
(La nave di Teseo, 2018)
screenplay
Eugenio Lio
Elisabetta Sgarbi
cinematography
Andres Arce Maldonado
editing
Andres Arce Maldonado
Elisabetta Sgarbi
music
Michele Braga
New Emergency Italy
production design
Monica Sallustio
costumes
Gaia Calderone
drawings
Manuele Fior
Giovanni Iudice
cast
Tommaso Ragno
(Celestino Reffi)
Elena Radonicich
(Beatrice Navi)
Renato De Simone
(Guido Cenere)
Michela Cescon
(Carla Reffi)
Renato Carpentieri
(Antonio Reffi)
Tony Laudadio
(Giovanni Marengadi)
Mimmo Borrelli
(Vittorio)
Vincenzo Nemolato
(Commissioner Càrrua)
Chiara Caselli
(Jole)
Antonio Rezza
(Monsiù)
Rossella De Martino
(Teresa)
Hildegard De Stefano
(Lara)
productions
Bibi Film
Betty Wrong
with Rai Cinema
producer
Angelo Barbagallo
Italian distribution
Fandango Distribuzione
fandango@fandango.it
www.fandango.it
After obtaining a degree in pharmacy, Elisabetta Sgarbi went into publishing, working first at the Studio Tesi and then at the publishing house Bompiani. After twenty-five years as editor and editorial director at the latter, in November 2015 she founded, along with other authors and editors such as Umberto Eco, Mario Andreose, and Eugenio Lio, La nave di Teseo Editore, serving as general director and editorial director. Sgarbi is the president of Baldini+Castoldi, La Tartaruga, and Oblomov Edizioni, as well as managing director of the magazine Linus. She founded the La Milanesiana Festival and the Linus Comics Festival, now in its third year, and is the artistic director of both. Since 1999, she has directed and produced her own films, which have made the rounds of the leading international festivals.
Selected filmography
2024 L’isola degli idealisti
2020 Extraliscio-Punk da balera (doc)
2018 I nomi del signor Sulčič
2014 Per soli uomini
2013 Racconti d’amore
2012 Il viaggio della signorina Vila
2011 Quiproquo
2010 Se hai una montagna di neve,
tienila all’ombra
2008 Non chiederci la parola
2005 Notte senza fine
