In the Catholic and traditionalist Italy, two teen-agers covertly discover new prohibited games.
Savatore Samperi is considered one of Italy's best directors in the comedy-drama genre.
This movie is set in the late 1940's, a few years after the trauma of WWII and during 1948 Italian elections when the Italian Communist Party was surprising defeated at the polls (an election many now believe was stolen by the American CIA). The political events are mostly kept in the background, however, as this story is told from the perspective of a precocious nine-year-old boy, "Ju". His parents are both emotionally damaged from the deprivations of war--there's an uncomfortable scene where he watches his mother (Paola Senatore) sexually service his father (Ugo Tognazzi), marks on her backside evident from the switch his abusive father likes to use on his family members (especially the female ones). The boy's larger awakening into adulthood, however, comes courtesy of his orphaned older cousin "Nene" (Leanora Fani), who comes to stay with his family. The teenage girl lets him sleep in her bed and confides him about her burgeoning sexuality and the illicit affair she is having with a local mulatto hood.
Director: Salvatore Samperi.
Cast: Alberto Cancemi, Leonora Fani, Rita Savagnone, Tino Schirinzi, Paola Senatore, Sven Valsecchi, Vittoria Valsecchi.
Italy, 1977.
Download Nenè.