Radiofreccia

Luciano Ligabue's first film as director, adapted from his own 1997 novel Fuori e dentro il Borgo. At the end of the seventies, a group of young men in a small Italian town start a pirate radio station. The radio is more than music to them: in a small place it is the only way to make your own voice audible, and a promise of a way out. The film does not romanticise the promise. The generation's other subject is heroin, and it takes the town's young men one by one. Freccia, played by Stefano Accorsi, is at the centre of the story, and the film takes its name from him. Shooting took place in Correggio, the town where Ligabue was born; he worked in the place he was describing, and the film's tone comes from that. It became an unexpected success, winning three David di Donatello awards, two Nastri d'argento and four Ciak d'oro. Ligabue took the prize for best debut director in 1999. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian generational films, the history of pirate radio and music-driven storytelling. Who it is not for: anyone who would rather not approach addiction and the deaths of young people.