I have friends in heaven: cinema meets disability

I have friends in heaven: cinema meets disability

It is released in cinemas today I have friends in heaven by Fabrizio Maria Cortese.

The film is the story of the profound change of a man struggling with a life experience with disabled people.

A film that brings together the cinema with the world of disability in an original way.

Protagonists of the film in fact, alongside some professional actors, are some people with disabilities guests of the Don Guanella Center of Rome.

Not an commercials and propaganda, nor an experience moved by pietism. But the conclusion of a personal experience of the director. Fabrizio Maria Cortese in fact since two years attended the Centre and organizes cinema workshops for guests. "This film," said, "is born from my desire to want to see people with disabilities play the lead role of a movie ...... .. See the film world and disability meet in this way was for me a deep emotion ".

Synopsis

Felice Castriota is an accountant in Salento, impulsive and a bit surface. The desire to get rich and a certain recklessness led him to launder the money underworld.

He is caught red-handed. When the Prosecutor of the Republic of Lecce proposes, instead of jail, the foster care to social services, Felice accepts immediately. He also denounces' U Pacciu, the important gangster for whom he recycled the money.

At the center of "Don Guanella" of Rome, where he was sent, Felice runs into a completely new reality. It is different both from what he expected and from the one he had known until then. Felice is a superficial man and used to luxury. He now has to be dealing with people who have serious physical and intellectual impairments. Continuous crisis, diapers to change and difficulty to interact with patients, they begin to be an integral part of his days. Slowly, also thanks of his love for Julia, the young psychologist of the center, Felice starts to feel, for the first time, part of a new large family, and he is poised to become, finally, what he has never been: a man. Everything seems to be going well, but the past returns to present the bill. Felice finds himself having to deal with 'U Pacciu, who finally found him.

Cast

The actors are Valentina Cervi, Antonio Catania, Fabrizio Ferracane, Enzo Salvi, Antonio Folletto, Emanuela Garuccio, Christian Iansante. They are flanked by the guests of the Don Guanella Center: Daniela Cotogni, Michele Iannaccone, Paul Mazzarese, RRock Keci, Giorgio Mazzarese, Stefano Scarfini, Mariano Belvedere, Paolo Silo.

Credits

The subject is by director Fabrizio Maria Cortese; the script by Fabrizio Maria Cortese, Giulia Lusetti, Stefano Piani. Music by Stefano Caprioli. The costumes by Maurizio Basile, the  scenography by Anna Forletta, photography by Andrea Busiri Vici D'Arcevia.

The film was produced by Golden Hour Films and Rai Cinema in collaboration with Opera Don Guanella and distributed by Golden Hour Film Distribution.

Location

The film was shot in Rome and in Nardò (LE), in particular in the area of Torre Squillace

Trailer