Lina Sastri

Four stories set in the Sibillini mountains, in the heart of Italy

Immersed in the jungle, among relics of a "forgotten future", two kids, Yaya and Lennie, meander. The two live freely in their Eden until armed men, who carry with them an "ancient" concept of civilization, force them to leave their territory. It is the beginning of a journey in search of their place in a world that no longer belongs to man.

In a Naples suspended between magic and superstition, madness and rationality, a mystery envelops the existence of Adriana (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), overwhelmed by a sudden love and a violent crime.

A director and his assistant are traveling around Europe to seek financing for a film with and about four international artists: Polish Krzysztof Bednarski, Danish Thorsten Kirchhoff, American Mark Kostabi and Malaysian H.H. Lim; all of them stars from the world of art and in love with Italy. Hilarious and quirky, we follow the carnival of madness around the Italian countryside.

When love blossoms between a young Italian woman and an African student, her family’s disapproval — and a secret — threatens to tear the lovers apart.

Four tales unfold in the Eternal City: While vacationing in Rome, architect John encounters a young man whose romantic woes remind him of a painful incident from his own youth; retired opera director Jerry discovers a mortician with an amazing voice, and he seizes the opportunity to rejuvenate his own flagging career; a young couple have separate romantic interludes; a spotlight shines on an ordinary man.

John Turturro tells, shooting alleys and testimonies of real neapolitan people, the history and musical culture of Napoli, attending every event and tale with a song.

Giuseppe Tornatore traces three generations of a Sicilian family in in the Sicilian town of Bagheria (known as Baarìa in the local Sicilian dialect), from the 1930s to the 1980s, to tell the story of the loves, dreams and delusions of an unusual community.

Saint Peter, a reluctant but passionate leader, from the crucifixion of Jesus to his own. The film's first half dramatizes the New Testament's "Acts": early fear, the renewal of Pentecost, Saul's conversion, the decision to baptize pagans, and the Apostles' dispersal. In the second half, an aged Peter goes to Rome to join Paul, arriving on the day of Paul's arrest. Paul's death brings a crisis to Rome's Christians and to Peter; lessons from Jesus's teachings guide his decision to stay. Events within the fictive household of Persius, a Roman aristocrat, capture the upheaval that Christian teachings bring to the Eternal City.

Cascia, 14th century, Rita Liotti falls in love, gets married and has two children. Her dream of love is soon hindered by a masculine and violent society, that Rita faces with peace and forgiveness. When she loses her husband and her children, she understands she has a mission: pursuing her path of peace, that will lead her to take the vows, and then to become Saint. Rita is a Saint of these days, who lived in a very violent age and was so brave to break free from the vengeance chain, through a deep, sincere and christian forgiveness. She is a particular Saint, talking to everybody’s hearts, as she was everything. She was a daugher, a wife, a mother and a nun, she experienced every sort of life, and in all her different lives she was a living model of christian life.

Piedmont (Italy), nineteenth century. In Turin, the priest Don Bosco, a man from a humble farming family, he gave himself totally and passionately to the task of collecting from the streets to marginalized children and care for them. Not only out of poverty, ignorance and social distress, but it got for the first time, to feel loved. He fought with extraordinary faith and tenacity to overcome obstacles and snares that both the civilian and ecclesiastical authorities, they put in their path to prevent him from completing his goal: the founding of the Congregation of the Salesians, which would guarantee the future of their children .

Palermo, Sicily, 1984. Examining magistrate Giovanni Falcone allies with Tomasso Buscetta, a former mobster, to defeat the clan of Corleone, the ruthless Mafia faction that rules Cosa Nostra with an iron hand, cruelly eliminating all those who dare to oppose its immense power: other criminals, policemen, judges, even innocent civilians. One of them wants revenge, the other wants justice. But only one can survive such an unequal fight.

A distinguished military leader whose reign was touched by great scandal, shocking betrayals and rousing victories. A simple shepherd boy chosen to be king, under the watchful eyes of prophet Samuel.

Francesco is an entrepreneur in the building industry. His company is near to collapse if it doesn't win a deal to build a new school complex. It needs at least 60 million liras to participate to the deal, but all the banks refuse to lend the money. A corrupt bank employee introduces him to Claudio, apparently an assistant of Sergio, Francesco's old school friend. Sergio is an accountant available to lend Francesco the money he needs. Francesco wins the deal, but soon he discovers that Claudio is not what he says.

June 1944. In the newly liberated Rome, Roberto Rossellini and Sergio Amidei decide, against all odds, to make an unprecedented, true-to-life film on the tragic events that occurred during the Nazi occupation: Rome, Open City .

A psychologist acquires wife and lover of a friend of him. But he has two more relationships yet. What will he do with four women following him?

A Roman agent is sent to Palestine to investigate rumors of the resurrection of an executed criminal.

In a straightforward yet unexceptional rendering of the life and loves of Alberto (Ben Gazzara), a writer/director approaching the hill though not yet over it, director Alberto Bevilacqua has used his own experiences to fashion a conventional tale about a search for the "perfect woman." His mettlesome neighbor Luisa (Lina Sastri) just will not leave him alone; she was the reason why he ended his marriage to Maura (Claudia Cardinale), but Alberto considers their affair dead and buried. Recently, an anonymous "dream woman" has been calling him for some seductive phone exchanges. As he searches out the identity of the mystery caller he is also distracted by Luisa who starts to insinuate herself back into his affections. Sooner or later, Alberto will just have to decide how to handle his love life, which in the end may only be mesmerizing to himself alone.

The story tells the life, the successes, the loves and the decadence of Augustine Caroline Otéro Iglesias, called "La Bella Otéro". The history of a Spanish actor, who - despite being born poor - became a symbol of the Belle Époque and one of the first dives of silent cinema.

During a war between heathens and Christians, love blossoms between crusader Bradamante—a female knight wearing an invincible suit of armor—and Moorish prince Ruggero. A sorceress predicts to Bradamante that her beloved will die in battle at the hand of a fellow Christian paladin, Rolando, who in turn is in love with Moorish princess Isabella, Ruggero's sister.

An Italian laborer foils anyone who tries to stop him from selling espresso on the Milan-to-Naples night train.

Michele, Goffredo, Mirko and Vito are four friends who have participated in the battles of the student in Sixties. Now in the Seventies, the four friends don't know what to do, though young and with so many possibilities to find a job in life. Intellectuals marginalized and misunderstood, the four friends find themselves when they can in a restaurant to discuss their outlandish theories. A girl named Olga disrupts their life, but Michele is her favorite, although he does not know what to do with the girl.

Luca Cupiello, like every Christmas, prepares the crib, amid the disinterest of his wife Concetta and his son Tommasino. Ninuccia, the other daughter, writes a letter to her husband in which she communicates that she leaves him for her lover. The letter happens in the hands of Luca who hands it over to his son-in-law, who thus learns of his wife's betrayal. During lunch on Christmas Eve, the two rivals, who were confronted by Luca's carelessness, clash violently.

Palermo, Sicily, November 1925. Cesare Mori, the new prefect of the city, soon to be known as the Iron Prefect, begins a ruthless war against the Mafia, a sinister organization that has subjugated the island for centuries, something that the dictator Benito Mussolini and the fascist authorities can no longer allow.

Thanks to the legacy of an English lord, the cobbler Andrea has become a baron and now has delusions of nobility: he wants a high-ranking marriage for his stepdaughter Virginia and does not recognize the brothers of his wife, Rosina and Michele, even after the latter has saved the his house from a fire. Virginia does not like her promised Marchese Alberto, but Felice Sciosciammocca, a shy and poor master of calligraphy, who reciprocates her. But when Felice learns that the girl will soon marry another, out of spite he accepts the court of the late Marquise Zoccola, Alberto's mother.

Happy Sciosciammocca has a double life: he plays sacred music in the convent of Rondinelle and teaches music to the educators, at night he goes to Naples where he is known as the actor.