100 Sundays

Antonio is a retired lathe operator; he worked forty years in the same factory, the factory closed, and now he passes his time with old friends. His daughter is to be married and the wedding needs money. He goes to the bank to draw the savings of a lifetime. The bank tells him something: the money is not in the account, it was converted years ago into shares by a document he signed, and those shares are now worth nothing. He does not understand. He goes back, asks for an explanation, and nobody gives him a clear answer. Antonio Albanese directs and takes the lead. The narrative rests on real events. In Italy certain local banks had customers sign contracts converting their savings into the banks' own shares, and when those banks collapsed thousands lost everything; the film comes out of that. Albanese is known in Italy as a comedian and plays here in an entirely dramatic register. The matter at the centre is not being understood: Antonio cannot follow what he reads, gets no answer in his own language to the questions he asks, and the way the bank speaks stands as a wall. The narrative points to no criminal; nobody defrauds him directly and the system produces the outcome by working as it works. A small industrial town in northern Italy and the life of a pensioner are given in detail. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian social drama and films about current matters. Who it is not for: it is without hope, the pace is slow, and the ending is hard.