Scampia is one of the most downtrodden suburbs of Naples, rife with crime and unemployment. Local worker and community role model Enzo tries hard to do his bit; running a Judo workshop that keeps local kids off the streets and interested in something other than a life of crime. But this defiance is not taken well by local mob bosses, and Enzo and his students find themselves targets of the local Camorra.

Organised crime remains a blight in Napoli, particularly in the form of a Mafioso named Ciro Serracane – a notorious mob hitman who has never been successfully identified. Enter Paco, a regular police officer with a music degree and a talented pianist; forced to go undercover and perform with the popular local band of Lollo Love in a effort to identify Serracane at a mob wedding. Things don’t go as planned.

Dani is a refugee from the Libyan civil war, temporarily housed in the Italian Alps while the government processes his and his baby daughter’s visas. To fill the time he begins helping an elderly carpenter, and is drawn into the family as a treasured but reserved member. The whole villiage awaits the first snowfall, and the arrival of winter – while Dani awaits a decision on his fate, and hopes to move to Paris to start a new life.

Ernesto is a simple man trying to make a living and prosper in life, but is constantly one step behind and finds himself on the bottom of the heap. Spanning forty years, the film shows his development from a young boy with a harsh father to a young lover to a father himself, and all of the problems inbetween. As Ernesto prospers and collapses, so too does Italy and the film attempts to chart Ernesto’s unexceptional but warm life against the background of a changing country.

Our generic hero Paolo, now married and with a pregnant wife, travels to a castle in the Alps to meet his wife’s family and her father’s boss. A man of exceptional clumsiness and bad luck, it is not long before beloved pets are killed, property is damaged, and the boss is declared prematurely dead. For Paolo’s father-in-law this is disastrous, as he is hoping that his longstanding friend and boss will put him in charge of the company.

Losing everything in a bankruptcy, three generations of women from the same family move to the countryside and attempt to make a living off the land. Led by elder sister Adele, life gets complicated as she pursues a relationship with an old school friend, her daughter gets pregnant, her mother gets married, her sister misses an audition for a part, and on, and on, and on…

Grazia is seventeen and facing her final exams before completing high school, but her life is a hollow – abandoned by a missing brother, and a father who does not wish to talk about the absence. Everything else passes by as noise, with Grazia searching hopefully for any sign of her brother in the small seaside town. Encountering a young carnival worker, she is momentarily distracted and finds support in her search.

Part documentary, part drama, Alberto Fasulo’s TIR documents the working life of a long-haul truck driver. Criss-crossingEurope’s highways and back alleys, Branko lives out of his truck – cooking and showering at the side of the road, and sleeping in the cab of the truck. Occasionally he is paired with partner Lucka; but for the majority of the film he is alone, negotiating problems at home via phone and pushed around by a distant head office which is focused on interests other than Branko’s.

Telling the story of a murder and an encounter with the occult in reverse, Re-wined (get it?) follows the fall and then rise of ordinary man Giovanni Cuttin to the highest echelons of Italian winemaking. Developing a dangerous and expensive obsession with the finest vintages, Cuttin wakes up one morning after passionate love-making with a mysterious woman to find his wife dead and himself the target of the investigation. But could this all be linked to a shady deal with “the professor?” Yes, yes it is.

The Coso family live a quiet and perfect life in the Tyrol mountains in northern Italy, with father Michele working for the town’s local magnate and attempting to climb the company ladder, and wife Carmela intensely focused on her children and the social status of their family. All of this is disrupted with the arrival of Carmela’s brother Ciro; a proported southern mob boss and now the responsibility of the Coso family, as he awaits his trial on house arrest. Chaos ensues.

Free spirit Leo is sixteen and unconcerned with his future, enjoying football with friends and wise-cracking in classes. All of this changes when he falls in love with older student Beatrice; too shy to approach her but too determined to give up. He is helped along by a new philosophy teacher, who helps him express his frustration through boxing and is there for Leo when he discovers that his beloved Beatrice is suffering from cancer.

Disappointed with their comfortable but repetitive existences within the beautiful city of Turin, three housemates and friends take small steps towards improving their lives and finding love. The results are mixed, with intellectual slacker Ugo striking out with every girl he meets; zookeeper Dario wanting to pursue scriptwriting and perhaps settle down with his girlfriend; and travel agent Maria desperately wishing a client would whisk her away on the escapes she carefully plans for them.

Sacro GRA documents the citizens of outer suburbs of Rome, who live on the great city’s fringes and along a highway known as the Grande Raccordo Anulare or ‘Great Ring Junction.’ We meet a palm and fern tree fanatic, an aging aristocrat, a father and daughter living modestly, a paramedic, and a large cast of other fascinating characters. What unites them is their common geography, and the economic recession that seems to have left no aspect of Italian life untouched.

Local lothario Andrea is happy in his life of disposable women and frothy PR, asking nothing more out of life than a good income and a different girl in his bed every evening. Imagine his shock when 16-year-old Layla arrives from out of the blue to meet her long lost father, and determine what sort of man he is – with her grandfather, aging rocker Enzo in two. The two are quickly shocked and disappointed in Andrea, who does his best to mend his ways but finds that old habits die hard.

Paolo is a contented alcoholic who practically lives within the local wineshop, and is gently tolerated by his wider community. Despite nurturing a quiet resentment of his friend Alfio, who is now happily married to Paolo’s ex-wife, he still attends lunch with them every Sunday and complies with the bare minimum of decorum and labour needed to keep him in wine and happiness. All of this changes when an estranged aunt dies; leaving the care of her nephew to Paolo. And he’s quick to come up with a harebrained scheme or two to adapt this misfortune to his advantage.

Young Tobia is content in his small community in the Italian Alps; daydreaming at school, and playing with his friends in the local ice hockey team. But things change when cute bad girl Agata shows up – stealing Tobia’s heart and leading him into endless trouble. But his friends are there for him, and together they conspire to land their little ice hockey team into a world championship in Moscow; where love and foolish plans run wild.

Poor Arturo is very personally cursed by the plague that blights Paloma – the mafia. While he owes his birth to a mafia hit that occurs during his parent’s honeymoon, he is defeated at every turn as a boy and adult by the accidental meddling of the mafia’s war against the government. Nursing a lifelong love of schoolmate Flora, Arturo despairs and comes to believe that no matter what he tries fate, and the mafia, will keep them apart.

Based on the true story of Rocco Granata, Marina follows a family’s migration from Italy to the coal mines of Belgium and their struggles to survive and maintain their identity within a foreign country. With only his dreams of singing and playing a piano accordion to keep him going, young Rocco similarly struggles against his family and his community to pursue his dream and become a famous performer. And etc, etc, etc – these scripts pretty much write themselves. There’s a romantic interest and some stupid dramas in there too.

Antonio Pane ekes out a contemporary, proletarian living by performing jobs as a fill-in – for a few hours, a day, perhaps longer if he is lucky. Moving in a surreal fashion from job to job, he somewhat incompetently cleans dishes, puts up street advertising, performs as a children’s mascot, and toils away unglamorously. Meeting young girl Lucia, things seem to be looking up as they begin a fledgling relationship. But things are quick to unsettle; with Antonio’s talented son Ivo struggling with performance anxiety and Antonio’s own lingering feelings for his ex-wife.

Pietro, a molecular biologist and university researcher, is promptly fired after a failed grant application and forced to contemplate an impoverished future. Chasing down a student for an outstanding fee, Pietro comes face to face with the underground designer drug market – and has a brilliant idea. Assembling a team of Latin specialists, an anthropologist, archaeologist, fellow chemist, and a host of other unemployed PhDs, Pietro plans to become the new kingpin of nightclub narcotics.