Maurizio Di Carmine

Don Matteo is a thoroughly ordinary Catholic priest with an extraordinary ability to read people and solve crimes. He’s a parish priest who never met an unjustly accused person he didn’t want to help.

A graphic portrayal of the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life.

After a fateful encounter in the summer of 1966, the lifepaths of two brothers from a middle-class Roman family diverge, intersecting with some of the most significant events of postwar Italian history in the following decades.

The story of Padre Pio (1887-1968) from the onset of the stigmata during World War I, when he prayed that soldiers' suffering be his, until his death. The story is told by Emilia, Pio's friend, to a Vatican official reviewing Padre Pio's potential canonization. We watch local people venerate the humble Capuchin monk, we see petty jealousies within the Church almost bring him down, and we experience his decision to build a Home for the Relief of Suffering, a labor of love begun just after World War II. Emilia and her husband Dr. Sanguineti work tirelessly beside the humble but sensible Pio.

After the breakdown of the old government, and with it the First Republic, Italy changed for good in 1994. Spinster Leo is all too aware of this. He pushed hard to see Berlusconi get elected Prime Minister. He knows it's not easy to win power, but holding on to it verges on the impossible. By the same token, it seems equally impossible for populist politician Pietro to change. Even now that he has an office at the Prime Minister's premises in Rome, he still can't cast off his old bad habits. Nor can he forget the only woman he has ever loved. A former TV starlet now turned politician and Congresswoman, Veronica has to decide who the man of her life is going to be. She has realized she no longer wants to be just a woman on the arm of powerful men. It is the start of her own push for power.

In 1838 in the kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies, Malacarne, gamekeeper of Baron San Germano, kills the bandit Caruso, whose widow gives birth to Giovanni and at the same time becomes the nurse of Costanza, San Germano’s orphaned daughter. Thirteen years later, Giovanni and Costanza fall in love to the jealousy of her uncle, who shuts her in a convent, ordering Giovanni to be killed by Malacarne who has meanwhile become a bandit. Barely alive, Giovanni is taken away by Bourbon soldiers. After Garibaldi’s arrival in Sicily and its union with Italy, Costanza is freed from the convent and returns to San Germano. She is visited by Giovanni and although still loves him, rejects him since she wishes to become a nun. In the meantime, Giovanni kills Malacarne and takes his place. Costanza marries the rich Lo Turco and the next day departs for Naples, but during the journey the carriage is attacked by Giovanni’s band. Costanza flees with him and they leave for America.

Don Matteo is a thoroughly ordinary Catholic priest with an extraordinary ability to read people and solve crimes. He’s a parish priest who never met an unjustly accused person he didn’t want to help.

The story of Padre Pio (1887-1968) from the onset of the stigmata during World War I, when he prayed that soldiers' suffering be his, until his death. The story is told by Emilia, Pio's friend, to a Vatican official reviewing Padre Pio's potential canonization. We watch local people venerate the humble Capuchin monk, we see petty jealousies within the Church almost bring him down, and we experience his decision to build a Home for the Relief of Suffering, a labor of love begun just after World War II. Emilia and her husband Dr. Sanguineti work tirelessly beside the humble but sensible Pio.

After the breakdown of the old government, and with it the First Republic, Italy changed for good in 1994. Spinster Leo is all too aware of this. He pushed hard to see Berlusconi get elected Prime Minister. He knows it's not easy to win power, but holding on to it verges on the impossible. By the same token, it seems equally impossible for populist politician Pietro to change. Even now that he has an office at the Prime Minister's premises in Rome, he still can't cast off his old bad habits. Nor can he forget the only woman he has ever loved. A former TV starlet now turned politician and Congresswoman, Veronica has to decide who the man of her life is going to be. She has realized she no longer wants to be just a woman on the arm of powerful men. It is the start of her own push for power.