EXCLUSIVE: Italian writer and director Gianni Di Gregorio, who won Venice’s Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film at the age of 60 in 2008 for breakout comedy Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di Ferragosto), returns to the Lido this year with his new film.
Deadline can reveal the trailer for the work, titled Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t (Come ti muovi, sbagli), which will premiere as the closing film of Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori.
Di Gregorio stars as a retired professor devoted to avoiding all the nuisances of daily life and keeping trouble at bay enough. At seventy, he has finally found peace: a nice home, a decent pension, good friends to joke with, and a lady companion.
This life is turned upside down by the unexpected arrival of his daughter, who is going through a marital crisis, with her two incredibly demanding children in tow.
This unexpected cohabitation brings emotional turmoil but also a new view on love and life for the retiree who had become stuck in his ways.
“This film is dedicated to family—and therefore to love. To that force that makes us do things we never thought we could do, turning us into tireless workers, but also into epic heroes and heroines.” says Di Gregorio of the film.
Di Gregorio is joined in the cast by Greta Scarano (Suburra), who also won praise for her feature directorial debut La Vita Da Grandi, as the daughter, and Game of Thrones star Tom Wlaschiha, as her cheating husband who walks from Germany to Rome in search of forgiveness.
The feature is produced by Angelo Barbagallo under the banner of his Bibi Film with Rai Cinema, and in co-production with French production company Les Films du Poisson. Fandango is handling sales.
