MY KILLER BUDDY

SYNOPSIS

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Denni is a ten-year-old boy with a mission to fulfill: to save his mother from his father's violence. But he is too little and realizes he cannot do it by himself. So, he decides to ask for help from someone who kills people for a living: a super-killer.
Too bad the super-killer he comes across is Secco, who only has the grim look of a criminal and, above all, a desperate need for money. So, he pretends to accept the assignment, with the aim of robbing the child's father. The encounter between Denni and Secco gives rise to an adventure that oscillates between drama and comedy, between reality and imagination, told from the point of view of the little protagonist. Denni and Secco will face the meaning of being men, the fear and mystery that unites and separates fathers and sons.

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DIRECTOR'S  NOTE

Secco and Denni are like two brothers who have rejected their father's model, and now they are lost, unconsciously searching for a new way to be men. The two protagonists are dealing with a rich and nuanced spectrum of emotions. They are very different characters, but one's characteristics echo in the other. With them, I wanted to reclaim the great ability of Italian cinema to convey drama through irony, yet with a contemporary and personal gaze. I aimed to portray the anger of those trapped by certain conditions, and the tenderness, which against all odds, survives. 

To bring Secco to life, I thought of Andrea Lattanzi because he is an actor capable of accessing both serious and light tones, bringing the character closer to himself to live it almost without any filter. The little Francesco who plays Denni was instead the result of a long search. What convinced me was the power of his gaze, capable of being both adult and child, sweet and angry. The friendship that arose between Andrea and Francesco was crucial in conveying warmth and empathy. By bringing the viewer down to a child's eye level, we dealt with the theme of violence uncompromisingly, yet avoiding a voyeuristic or rhetorical gaze. In this film, domestic violence is never shown, yet its presence is clear to us as viewers, just as it is to the little protagonist. And just like him, we would like to do something to stop it, but we feel small and weak. To see the world through Denni's eyes means not trivializing, but recognizing the complexity of children's thoughts. Alongside him, we discover how violence can be the most terrible of legacies, yet avoiding it is possible and necessary.