Italian Cinema Today

Luca Medici aka Checco Zalone presented his new film Tolo Tolo in Rome on Thursday. It will open nationwide on New Year's Day. I haven't seen the film yet, but the early reviews are intriguing. Zalone made his directorial debut with this film after a falling out with his longtime collaborator, director Gennaro Nunziante. Co-written by Paolo Virzì , the film explores many of Italy's recent hot topics such as African immigration, a sensitive subject that was thrust into the spotlight by Matteo Salvini's populist government during much of 2018 and 2019. The film has generated comparisons to the work of Alberto Sordi .  The story centers on the main character, Pierfrancesco Zalone, called Checco, as he finds himself in a trying period of his life with financial problems, a failed attempt as a restaurateur and two nagging  ex-wives. He decides to pick and leave Italy for a position as a waiter at an African resort. Here, he meets fellow Italian entrepreneurs who also...

Born in the historic seaside city of Crotone, Calabria, actor Stefano Grillo  is about to reach North American shores. "Quo Vado?" is Checco Zalone's box office record-breaking film and it's in the lineup of this year's edition of the Italian Contemporary Film Festival  in Canada. Grillo plays the part of Don Michele Vannucci, the pastor in a fictitious village in Calabria, called Castrovizzo. Don Michele Vannucci is a priest who fights against organized crime and because of this, ends up being transferred elsewhere. The focus of "Quo vado?" is on Checco Zalone ( Luca Medici aka Checco Zalone ). Born into a life of relative comfort and privilege among his peers in his small town in southern Italy, he is one of the lucky few to have a posto fisso, or guaranteed job as a public servant. When a new reformist government vows to cut down on bureaucracy, Checco is forced to accept ever-worsening public-sector postings in order to maintain his guarante...