NATALE FUORI ORARIO

Italy | 2024 | 85 min | col.

Christmas 2047. The Wizard, the Giant, and the Singer, on the verge of the end of the world, decide to go back to the ‘train station club’ where they have performed in so many Christmas shows, i.e., the “Fuori Orario” in Taneto, province of Reggio Emilia. Here, they want to renew their old covenant of friendship for the last time. Above the roof, in a cryo-preservative case, their most beloved relic travels towards home: it’s the club's historic manager, Frankie la Luce, aka Franchino, in hibernation for 25 years. Between irony and melancholy, fiction and documentary, including footage of the many concerts of Vinicio Capossela at “Fuori Orario,” film director Gianfranco Firriolo and the singer-songwriter – after their first collaboration La faccia della terra – cowrote an out-of-the-box, original hybrid of road movie and concert movie to praise music’s uniting power and at the same time reflecting on the flowing of time. All is made even more precious by Luca Bigazzi’s extraordinary wintery cinematography. (a.s.)