George Li Tourniaire

Sauro Cantafame is “the techie”: he drives solo through a lunar southern landscape in his Ape Car, in a borderland between the real and the absurd. His mission? Implant mechanical hearts in deceased oldsters, so their families can pretend they’re still alive and cash their pension checks. He offers a ride to a fragile kid in danger, whose name says it all, as far as his prospects are concerned: Giocondo Infelice. But that gesture raises the hackles of Vito ‘a scimmia, the crime lord who has full control over the territory. Cantafame teaches the kid his strange trade in death, craft, and discontent; while Giocondo breaks out of his shell and finally finds the father he never had. But Cantafame has a few skeletons in his closet and a negative karma to fulfill, which will goad him to defy Vito in order to save his young charge.

Born in 1975, Marinette Pichon was a born soccer player. Raised by a courageous mother who had to deal with an abusive husband, she overcame difficulties and developed unwavering determination. While juggling odd jobs and her sporting career, she was selected for the French national team and then spotted by a major American club. Marinette then moved to the United States with her mother, pursuing her dream of becoming the best player in the world.

Leo is only twenty, but his life is in black and white. His days always begin at 6:06, with odd jobs and an endless race to get his hands on his next hit. Taking drugs is not just an addiction; it’s a mental loop that keeps Leo trapped in an eternal déjà vu. Each time he tries to break out and escape, he’s always sent back to square one. Until he meets Jo-Jo, an enigmatic girl his same age who speaks French only and drives a camper like she’s on the run from something. Like him, she has deep scars. So Jo-Jo is not an easy way out, but it’s chaos that Leo needs. She has her own demons, and in some way, she can see into Leo’s fractured psyche. They drive off to Portugal together, through dusty, dreamlike landscapes, and there, their souls connect and finally speak the same language. Yet saving each other won’t be easy. Leo struggles with his dependency, while Jo-Jo seems to be one step away from dissolving into thin air – as if she were only there to show Leo the path to take.