IT
| Title | MY KILLER BUDDY |
|---|---|
| Original Title | Io e il secco |
| Movie Type | |
| Genre | |
| Section | |
| Production Year | 2023 |
| Country | Croatia, Italy |
| Movie Length | 99’ |
| Director | |
| Screenplay | |
| Cast | Alessandro Bernardini, Andrea Lattanzi, Andrea Sartoretti, Barbara Ronchi, Francesco Lombardo, Lanfranco Vicari, Simone Plazzi, Swamy Rotolo, Zoe Trevisan |
| Director of Photography | |
| Editor | |
| Production Designer | Nicola Bruschi |
| Costume Designer | Beatrice Giannini |
| Music | Dade |
| Produced by | Danijel Pek, Ines Vasiljevic, Pilar Saavedra Perrotta, Stefano Sardo |
| Production | Nightswim Sajama Films Rai Cinema (Italia) Antitalent (Croazia) |
| International Distribution | Minerva Pictures International (https://www.minervapicturesinternational.com/), TVCO (Italia) www.tvco.eu |
| Festival Contact |
MY KILLER BUDDY
Denni is ten years old and on a mission: to save his mother from his father’s violence. Small as he is, he cannot do it alone. For this he devises a foolproof plan: he will have his father killed by a super-killer. Secco, the super-killer Denni comes across, unfortunately only has the appearance of a criminal…and he is in desperate need of money. The man pretends to accept the assignment but only to rob the child’s father. The meeting between Denni and Secco gives life to an adventure that oscillates between drama and comedy, a buddy movie at child level, poised between fantasy and a reality that is even too harsh. Denni and Secco will live an experience that will lead them to question the meaning of being men, and the fear and mystery that unites and separates fathers and sons
Director's Bio
Gianluca Santoni was born in 1991 in Fermo. From 2013 to 2015 he attended the directing course at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. In this period he shot the commercial COL CIBO NON SI SHERZA and some short films, including his diploma short: GIONATAN CON LA G, in competition at Giffoni in 2017 and winner of the Cinemaster Universal, awarded in collaboration with SNGCI, at the Nastri d’Argento Awards 2017. This award allows him to attend a short master degree at the Universal Pictures Studios in Los Angeles. In the same year Gianluca wrote the story for the film MY KILLER BUDDY, with which he won the Solinas Award for best story, with the screenwriter Michela Straniero. In 2018 he wrote the short film INDIMENTICABILE which he directed in 2019. The short film won numerous awards in Italy and around the world. He wrote the screenplay for the short film NON SE PO’ SCAPPÀ, with which he won the 2021 Rodolfo Sonego Award. IO AND IL SECCO (2023) is his debut feature film.
Director's Note
“We didn’t start writing thinking we were talking about domestic violence. We didn’t choose the social theme and then think about the story. We started from an idea: the paradox of this child with a mind considered innocent who experiences the conflict of wanting to defend the person he loves most in the world, his mother, from the violence of this terrible man who is his father, and of wanting to do it through violence itself. We realized that there was a lot to tell behind this idea.
For example, the story of violence as a legacy. What needed to be saved was not only the mother of the child but the very innocence of little Denni. This led us to never show her, because we were more interested in the effects on the child’s mind. The struggle we wanted to tell was that of the choice Denni experienced between being someone who runs after violence like his father or someone who managed to escape from all this. To be a different man.” (Hollywood Reporter)