Familia, Francesco Costabile’s second film, is perhaps a missed opportunity: according to many critics, it would have deserved the official competition and not the prestigious Orizzonti section of the 81st Venice International Film Festival. The film, full of grit, rhythm and emotions, also has the strength of truth: it is based on the autobiography Non sarà sempre così (Piemme) by Luigi Celeste, who in 2008 killed his father and was sentenced to nine years in prison for murder.
Here is the story of this film “against the toxicity of patriarchy” – as Costabile defines it – which will be released in theaters in the fall distributed by Medusa. Luigi Celeste (Francesco Ghighi) is twenty years old and lives with his mother Licia (Barbara Ronchi) and his brother Alessandro (Marco Cicalese). The three are united and quite happy, also because for almost ten years none of them has seen Franco (Francesco Di Leva), the head of the family, who for his repeated violence has made their life hell so much so that he ended up in prison. Luigi in the meantime, perhaps in search of a sense of belonging and identity, joins a far-right group where he vents his anger.
But one bad day Franco comes back, he wants his children back, he wants his family back. And the latter wants to believe it once again, but can such a violent man really change?
