Films: Martino's Summer

Martino's Summer

Italy, 2011, 87 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Comedy, Drama, Family Friendly, Romance, Sports
Program: Contemporary World Cinema
Language: Italian English Subtitles

DIRECTOR: Massimo Natale
Producer: Mario Mazzarotto
Editor: Paola Freddi
Screenwriter: Giorgio Fabbri
Cinematographer: Vladan Radovic
Principal Cast: Treat Williams, Matilde Pezzotta, Luigi Ciardo, Matteo Pianezzi, Simone Borrelli, Pietro Masotti

The summer of 1980 was a bloody one in Italy, marked by the downing of a DC9 plane in the skies over Ustica in June and the terrorist bombing of a Bologna train station in August. These two tragic episodes frame the backstory of Martino, an Italian boy, and Clark, an American Army captain on duty in Ustica. 

Martino is young and thoughtful—though not all his thoughts are prudent. He has one eye on his older brother’s girlfriend, Silvia, and the other on the military compound that has fenced off the island’s best beaches. When Clark discovers him sneaking in to swim and dream about Silvia, he takes the boy under his wing, teaching him how to surf, and a father-son bond soon develops as each finds how much can be learned from the other despite the barriers of language and age. 

Massimo Natale’s feature debut, which premiered at the 2010 Rome Film Festival, shows artistic promise worthy of this year’s Maria and Tommaso Maglione Italian Filmmaker Award.

(Unsubtitled trailer)

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