My Killer Buddy (Un Amico di Famiglia)
Ten-year-old Denni is determined to save his mother from his abusive father. He hires “Secco,” a down-and-out would-be hitman, unaware that his plan will lead both of them into an unexpected alliance and a dangerous coming-of-age adventure.
DIRECTOR
Gianluca Santoni
Actors
1h 39m • Rated TBC • Drama, Crime • Italy, Croatia
Andrea Lattanzi • Francesco Lombardo • Barbara Ronchi • Andrea Sartoretti • Swamy Rotolo
Drifting into fantasies of power, their 10 year-old son Denni (Francesco Lombardo) settles on murder-for-hire as the answer to his family’s problems, and approaches Secco (Andrea Lattanzi), a kind-hearted petty thief and failed armed robber whom the local kids have built up in their minds as a ‘super-killer’. An oddly charming battle of wits and wills between Secco and Denni ensues, with the former hoping to secure the cash for the hit job on Fabio without actually doing it, and the latter immediately suspecting this. Their adventure becomes by turns comical and terrifying. A quirky yet powerful take on the meaning of fatherhood. Renee Mark
CRITICS ROUNDUP
A darkly tender coming-of-age tale
Ten year old Denni has a mission: to save his mother from his father’s violence. For this reason he devises an infallible plan: he will have him killed by someone who kills people for a living, a super-killer. Among the rutted tracks, staved-in boats and never-to-befinished blocks of flats on the coastline of northeastern Italy between Porto Corsini and Cesenatico, industrialist Fabio (Andrea Sartoretti) has been beating his wife Maria (Barbara Ronchi) for years and getting away with it.