Synopsis

The world of football is finished and not even a miracle can save it, we are at the Apocalypse: splits into super leagues, corporate scandals, clandestine betting, capital gains, match-fixing, excellent arrests, no one is excluded, it’s happening in all European leagues, modern football is out of control, and in eastern football, you can’t understand anything anymore; not least a real financial war between FIFA and UEFA, which is also threatening the political stability of some countries. The film focuses on Claudio, 35, an unpredictable and tempestuous social phenomenon, in the midst of a media war with Albanese for domination of every portable screen in town, and his friend Andrea, 26, a young taxi driver who would like to sell his licence to share the profits with his 16-year-old sister Nicoletta, run a small gambling ring clandestine betting thanks to the tips of two people in particular: those of the Serbian Hristiyan, 55, a gambling addict who contributes with those on football in the East, and the tips given to him by Marco, 24, a talented defender of the home team who in turn learns about it thanks to the Senators, the senior players. They all frequent the Acquario, the former nightclub that thanks to the management of Vittoria, 55, who is also involved in this betting ring, has become a nightclub of reference in the city, where Claudio, Andrea and the players exchange tips.

And how does it work? On a small scale, their system is foolproof: when they have a tip on a rigged game, they share the winning result with their most trusted clients, mostly workers who have to unload the black, such as dentists, teachers bodyworkers and lawyers, on whose safe winnings they earn a percentage, while with the most uninformed customers, Claudio and Andrea earn money by banking, enticing them with the possibility of betting on the losing outcome, with higher odds than those are already out there. It is the equivalent of buying shares short on the stock market. So, once all the bets have been collected, part of the capital is played from home, online, through anonymous prepaid cards and the use of different profiles on several platforms, where both bet as front men; another part of this capital is gambled instead in cash, i.e. by splitting the largest sums in dozens of small bets, thanks to a network of trusted managers and users of real betting shops.

Thanks mainly to Andrea, this method not only works, but allows him and Claudio to stay below the risk threshold and at the same time live a life over. For Claudio and Andrea, however, it is not just a way of rounding up or participating in the success: Claudio wants to become a social star and outclass the Albanian in terms of followers, and also wants to return to the world of football, which a serious injury precluded him when he was young; Andrea on the other hand sees in that model an escape from the clan of taxi drivers, an unwanted adoptive family that at all hours moves and binds this city, dominated by the figure of Arnaldo, his uncle, who made his father sick his father sick over this damned licence and who would now be willing to buy Andrea’s licence to settle the matter with his nephews and complete his revenge.

In these confused days, in the shadow of the patron saint, between the faithful arriving for the procession and fans flocking to the stadium to watch the derby, Claudio and Andrea the door of change opens wide for them: a rigged game in which to play a leading role. And it is not just any game, but the derby itself. The Senators want to sell the game to go against a management guilty of using players as capital gains, and not interested in renewing their contracts. The offer is a divine sign: fixing the derby is a betrayal to the city but also a chance to make a lot of money, take over the betting market from Hristiyan, get rid of the taxi and Uncle Arnaldo, overtake the Albanese on social media, and become legends of this new upside-down world. And if everything goes as decided, there is something for everyone: Nicoletta will be able to become a professional football player, and Vittoria will be able to take over Aquarius. Everyone is in the game, no one excluded, dream of a miracle result that can change their lives, but Claudio and Andrea have only 48 hours to combine the derby, the most sacred match of the championship, and in a game where everything can change, and where everyone has bet something, only a miracle can protect them from a city ready to take sides against them.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

I started this journey almost ten years ago, following the world of football through the lens of a video camera. Through this medium, I have been through everything. From joy to pain, from victories to scandals. In this long journey, I thought I had already exhausted everything I wanted to say on the subject, when one day I met Claudio, a young man caught up in a betting scandal. His arguments, his stories fascinated me not so much for their content, but for the way he had of convincing me that everything he told me was credible, and above all within reach: success, easy wealth, the talent for an ostentatious life. A perfect wannabe. And giving me this confirmation was Andrea, his best friend, dragged into a sports fraud trial simply because he had believed that, with Claudio at his side, anything was possible, even remaining blameless in the face of wrongdoing. The vision Claudio showed me of football meant that a new universe opened up in front of me, that of a sport where the sporting gesture no longer made any sense, and where the athlete had been elevated from sacrifice to myth by losing his consistency, his univocity of discipline and sacrifice; from flesh to figures. The thing that had struck me most, however, so much so that it convinced me to write a film about this little pair of con men, was that they both took it for granted that the football of today, the kind that turns athletic gesture into market value, had always been like this. For them, it didn’t matter who won the Scudetto. For Claudio and Andrea, football was a matter of dogmatic prestige: either you belong to it or you don’t. It was a life devoted to chasing the light of success. I too was a fan, not an ardent one, but I loved football, genuine, popular, proletarian, where you

could keep together almost thirty kids who often had little to do with each other before they had a ball between their feet. I saw the evolution of a ritual: “Tutto il calcio minuto per minuto” on the radio, on Sunday afternoons after lunch, then a match on TV on Sunday evening, then one on Monday, and finally matches on streaming every day, at all hours, from all over the world, bets, celebrities. I intend to shoot this film starting from its most human, most tangible component: from that street on which anyone can find themselves kicking a ball. For this effect, I consider it necessary to make significant use of hand-held cameras: a shot at the same level as the characters, which moves when they move and follows their gazes, their visions, the world made up of their very personal perceptions. Frames in which the person is the main and essential part of the composition; alternated by zooms in in social network dynamics: close-up videos/selfies in which people speak to the world, in which characters make speeches about themselves towards an anonymous audience that follows and cheers for one side or the other. A screen that shows the excessive side of the characters. Which reveals the monster each one

has hidden inside: terrifying and seductive. I feel I should pay special attention to the lead couple. Claudio and Andrea, although often in conflict, must have an invisible and very strong chemistry between them that makes the viewer perceive them to be linked by an inseparable thread: two sides of the same coin that is swirling voraciously in the air, before beginning its downward fall. Two faces, Claudio and Andrea, also linked by a double thread to chance, the ultimate judge who will decide which way the coin will turn, which world will be realised, whether Claudio’s reckless and crazy one or Andrea’s more realistic and devoted to sacrifice. The two move in a world that is as frenetic and venal as it is ancient, made up of centuries-old traditions and ties that no one can dare break.

MARIO BUCCI

A versatile and eclectic Italian director, experienced as first assistant director, with a rare ability to enter into the bowels of the stories he tells, and pull out the most unusual and fascinating aspects. Always author of his own project. Some works: 2011he directed the TV show “Chi se ne frega della musica” with the main character CAPAREZZA, the best Italian musician at that time; in 2012 he is director and co-author of the series “Non Cresce l’erba” screened on MTV; in 2014 director of the documentary “Una meravigliosa stagione fallimentare” screened in cinemas in Italy and winner of different prize in world’s festivals; in 2016 his first co-directed feature film “Da che parte stai” (2011) is screened at the prestigious Rome Independent Film Festivals. In 2019 as cinematographer for 2 international documentaries: Tony Driver (IT/MEX/USA) screened at Mostra del Cinema di Venezia, and the indie Hard Enough – A Speedway Family (AUS.). First assistant director on the american indie feature film Spring (2015), on the Italo-French production Stella Maris (2015) and I santi (2020) short movies, and on Ammore (2013) short movie selected at David di Donatello.