One of the most recent products of the “Vesuvian school” of Piscicelli, Martone, Capuano. A revelation-debut distributed by “Sacher” of Nanni Moretti, which was screened in many festivals and received several prizes, among which the awards for the best film at the International Week of Film Critics in Venice and for the best director in Valencia. It is the story of four fishermen from Naples and a Tunisian immigrant aboard the “Marilibera”, of their very tough and risky life in the sea of Sicily, abounding in fish, at the border with North African territorial waters, defying patrol boats. Until the moment when Salvatore, the captain, decides to go back to Naples, in the Phlegraean area, where fishing is controlled by the criminal organization known as “camorra”. An explosive situation, heralding a dramatic end. One of the fishermen dreams of leaving everything and moving to America with his wife, who is instead killed by a little boy playing with a gun. The man is desperate and falls into the sea and disappears. He is later rescued and mistaken for an illegal immigrant. Then, he is repatriated to Africa together with other survivors. Played in dialect by non-professional actors, Tornando a casa dwells carefully and lyrically on the relationship between man and sea, and is, according to some critics, reminiscent of La terra trema by Luchino Visconti.

Vincenzo Marra

He was born in Naples in 1972 and moves to Rome when he is very young, but remains very attached to his town of origin. He studies Law and is very committed to the situation of civil rights in Latin America (he is involved in the trial for Italian desaparecidos) and Northern Ireland. After working as sport photographer, in 1996 he begins his cinematographic carrier directing two short films: Una rosa prego and La vestizione. He was Mario Martone’s assistant both in theatre and cinema (Teatro di guerra), and Marco Bechis’s assistant director in Garage Olimpo. He won the Solinas Award for the screenplay of Giorno per giorno. After the critical success of Tornando a casa, he shot two documentaries: E.A.M.-Estranei alla massa (2001) on seven young hooligans supporting the football team of Napoli, and Paesaggio a Sud (2003). His second work, Vento di terra, dates back to 2004 and was presented at the Venice Film Festival, too (special mention in the “Orizzonti” section). It is the story of a sixteen-year-old boy from the degraded Neapolitan neighbourhood of Secondigliano who joins up the army and takes part in a peacekeeping operation in the Balkans, where he falls ill.