Giuseppe Napoli

After the 8th September 1943 north of Italy is occupied by Germans. Italian army collapsed and the soldiers are escaped to the mountains trying to set up a resistance. Many civilians did the same and Johnny, an English literature student, is among them. Johnny avoids to band together the red partisans (communists) and tries to be part of the azure bands (former regular soldiers). But in both cases he is deluded by the partisan bands and discovers that the partisan war is less poetic and genuine that he thought. At one point anyway the partisans free Alba from Germans. When the city falls again in German hands Johnny escape with Ettore and Pierre. But, one after another, German army and Italian fascists captures the partisans and Johnny will pass the winter alone and isolated. He then finds the way to participate to one of the last attack to occupants, in fact the war will be over two months later.

The movie tells the little stories of a group of families who live in the same building in Rome as seen from the eyes of Sandrino, a little kid who is awaiting for a total eclipse of the sun, that really happened during summer of '61, and it was was fully visible from Italy. He sees his family life, a young girl who is about to marry a man she doesn't love, an old man who has just died and whose relatives fight for his inheritance, a blind trumpet player who hopes to recover, his little friends...

On the edge of a road that leads out of town, some Nigerian prostitutes pass the time on sagging sofas, bargaining with white clients for their bodies and their thoughts. On another street, some Slavic boys wait to be hired as bricklayers, but they are willing to do any kind of work. At night, an Egyptian works as an illegal in a gas station.

Four stories about football.

Companion piece to Jovanotti's 1997 seventh studio album 'Lorenzo 1997: L'albero'. “The movie tells a story starting from the end, when the long-awaited L'ALBERO is finally done and we realize we made the PERFECT, DEFINITIVE RECORD! But a lightning destroys the hard disk it was stored on, there's no backup and we have the record company knocking at the door for the master tapes. My band and I then agree to the only possible thing: to redo the album in a very short time by facing an initiatory, esoteric, ramshackle, crazy, mystical, chivalrous, demented journey from which the album we all know will emerge, which is not the PERFECT RECORD... but comes from that idea.” — Jovanotti

During a trip to the USA Carla falls in love with Charles, an ex-punk rocker now working as a security guard. She returns to Torino, Italy, and breaks the bad news to Francesco, her fiancee; they have a fight, she leaves him and apparently disappears.