Carolina Crescentini
St. Petersburg, 1860. After a member of the imperial family is assassinated, Fyodor Dostoevsky meets a man institutionalized in a mental asylum — who confesses taking part in the terrorist plot and reveals that his fellow conspirators are planning to kill another of the Tsar’s relatives. Plagued by debts and struggling to finish his latest novel, Dostoevsky must act fast to call off the attack.
A big family that like any other one includes relatives that see each other often and others that rarely meet, reunite to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of grandma Alba and grandpa Pietro in a big Villa, on the island they moved to. Because of weather conditions they all remain stranded on the island and the idyll between them seems to be over.
It’s 1348. The plague has brutally hit Florence. A group of then young people, seven women and three men, rebel against the feeling of death that is about to swallow them. They flee the city and find refuge in an abandoned villa in the Tuscan hills. Here, between moral doubts and the tasks needed to survive, they kill time by telling each other stories until they will decide to return. The stories are varied – tragic, bizarre, funny or erotic – but common and central to all of them is the female presence.
Elena (Kasia Smutniak) and Antonio (Francesco Arca) seem not to be made for each other. They are too different in terms of character, life choices, worldview, and the way they relate to others. They are total opposites. However, they are overwhelmed by a mutual attraction they’re trying hard to avoid; but to which they succumb to. This dramedy on relationships also gets a very credible performance from Paola Miraccione, who plays the tragic, albeit funny, character Egle.
Based on the fact-based novel by Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal based on his 1962 prosecution of the head of a Polish factory whom he learns was a murderous labor camp commandant. To be able to take him to justice, he must find witnesses who can help him. This leads him to Max Rosenberg, a still tormented individual who lost his wife, Helen, in the camps. Initially Max refuses to cooperate, but gradually his story unfolds beginning before the Holocaust.
Claudio Verona is a young and cynical businessman. One day he gets locked in his Roman office elevator before an important meeting with a client. Soon this annoying obstacle will turn into a nightmare. For outside that metal cage, a deadly virus has begun to infect and transform people into extremely violent and dangerous zombies. Claudio has to get out of his claustrophobic space but it seems the elevator is the safest place to be in the city.
