19/11/2007

In order to learn to respect others, Luca Argentero, who plays an Italian building contractor in Claudio Cupellini’s debut feature Lezioni di cioccolato [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Chocolate Lessons”), must pretend to be a pastry chef (an Egyptian one, no less) to keep from being reported by Kamal, a construction worker who fell from a scaffold and intends to make his boss pay unless the wealthy businessman agrees to get Kamal’s chocolate-making diploma for him.

Argentero, seen last year in the ensemble films Our Country [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Saturno contro, makes his comedic debut here, in a “dual” leading role: as the go-getting contractor Mattia and the humble immigrant who speaks broken Italian.

He is flanked by Violante Placido, a model student anything but indifferent to his charms, and Hassani Shapi (who has previously played a Jedi knight for George Lucas) as the unlucky Kamal, who dreams of opening his own bakery but first must learn the art of chocolate.

Set in Perugia, the film received support from the Umbria Film Commission and, above all, from Italy’s largest sweets manufacturer, Perugina. “This is probably the first time in Italian cinema that product placement was so directly involved in the plot”, said producer Riccardo Tozzi of Cattleya, “and with a rather considerable investment, which covered approximately 20% of the overall €2.9m budget”.

The film’s sweetness, however, does leave a bitter aftertaste in taking on the topical social problems of illegal work and racial integration. Dealt with comically in the story, screenwriter Fabio Bonifacci said he was inspired by classic Italian films that while “depicting serious issues, entertained and simultaneously made people think.”

Out in theatres on November 23, the film is the first Italian title to be distributed (on over 150 screens) by Universal.

(Translated from Italian)