01/03/2016 - Based on the radio show of the same name, the film tells the story of young people who leave Italy, starring Filippo Scicchitano, Sara Serraiocco and Giovanni Anzaldo. Produced by Paco with RaiCinema

A film born from a radio show, a project that is more unique than rare: Non è un paese per giovani (lit. It’s no country for young people) is the new piece by Giovanni Veronesi. Over the past year, the director of Manual of Love and The Fifth Wheel [+see also:
trailer
interview: Giovanni Veronesi
film profile] has hosted a radio show live everyday on Rai Radio2: “I called an Italian guy living abroad and asked him to tell me his story and why he left Italy”, he said, “what these young people told me was at times funny, at others unbearably remorseful”.

This is what inspired the story of Sandro and Luciano, two young boys who veer off the beaten track walked by their peers to travel to a borderland, Cuba, in search of long-awaited economic fortune. But there they bump into Nora, a beautiful, stubborn, emotional and extreme girl, also Italian, who changes their lives. The beauty and violence of the island lead Luciano to lose sight of everything just when Sandro realises why he has followed him there.

“Over 100,000 young people leave Italy every year. It’s a slow but relentless exodus”, says Veronesi, going onto to clarify that “My films have always been entertaining comedies and I don’t want to lose the virtue in that, but I also don’t want to lose sight of the historical time we’re living in, and want to portray it through this delicate issue”.

“Telling the story of the adventure of a generation of young people on the run, our young people, streaked with the irony and sensitivity of Giovanni, seemed like an opportunity to tackle an incredibly current and overlooked issue”, said Isabella Cocuzza and Arturo Paglia who are producing the film for Paco Cinematografica, with Rai Cinema. Playing the protagonists are Filippo Scicchitano (Scialla! [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Fasten Your Seatbelts [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ferzan Ozpetek
film profile]), Italian Shooting Star of this year’s Berlinale Sara Serraiocco (Salvo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabio Grassadonia and Anton…
interview: Sara Serraiocco
film profile], Chlorine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sara Serraiocco
film profile]) and Giovanni Anzaldo (The Wait [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lou de Laâge
interview: Piero Messina
film profile], Assolo [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). The film will also feature Sergio Rubini and Nino Frassica.

Shooting for Non è un paese per giovani, which has just started, is set to last six weeks and will take place in Rome, Havana and Cayo Largo. The screenplay was written by Giovanni Veronesi with Ilaria Macchia (The Wait) and Andrea Paolo Massara (South Is Nothing [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miriam Karlkvist
film profile], The Wait). The photography is by Tani Canevari, the set design by Andrea Castorina and the costumes by Valentina Monticelli; Negramaro will produce the music. The film will be released in Italy by 01 Distribution.

(Translated from Italian)