The best Francesco Montanari’s drama movies

Andrea Serrano is a young aspiring writer who, to make ends meet, is forced to wash corpses in a mortuary, while struggling to finish his first novel, a story about the Camorra. Having become discouraged by his struggling career, he is waiting for the chance of a lifetime. And finally, it arrives - a major film producer decides to adapt his novel and make it into a movie.

Regina, a 15-year-old girl who lost her mother years earlier, dreams of becoming a singer. Her father, Luigi, her only family at that point, firmly believes in his daughter's talent and supports her unceasingly. After all, Luigi had given up his own musical career to be near his daughter. Their relationship seems rock-solid, indissoluble, until one day an unexpected event changes their lives..

An expertly directed social realist drama that powerfully encapsulates the toll that the economic downturn is taking on Italy through the story of a woman, Eli, as her day-to-day life becomes a microcosm of the issues of the country at large. Eli (Isabella Ragonese, La nostra vita Opening Night LIFF10) is a kind, effervescent and loving mother to her children and is deeply in love with her husband. He is out of work, but she manages to find a job in a cafe, except it’s two hours away from her home and the hours are long. Without another option, she embraces the opportunity, dutifully getting up before dawn, and excelling at her work, a fast favourite of all the customers in the café and quickly becoming its most valuable asset.