“Totò e Daiana” premiers at IL Film Festival

Totò e Daiana – Calcio, Caffè e Fish and Chips – premiers in London at the IL Film Festival

The 3rd November took place the 3rd edition of the Italian London Film Festival.

A sold out event charmingly hosted by the godmother of the festival, actress and producer Alida Pantone.

The awards went to “Mon Clochard” by Gian Marco Pezzoli for Best Short Film and Best Screenplay, to Gianluca Zonta as Best Director for “Pizza Boy“, with Giga Imedadze winning the award for Best Performance. The Audience Award went to “9 out of 10” by Andrea Baroni.

Actors Anna Elena Pepe and Marco Gambino presented their latest work, the pilot of the Web Series Toto e Daiana – calcio, caffè e fish and chips.

The film , written by Pepe and Gambino themselves, in collaboration with Ciccio Bozzi, historical collaborator of  comedian Fiorello, is directed by Riccardo Sai.

Totò (interpreted by Marco Gambino) is a renowned chef from Palermo who has worked in London for more than 30 years. Daiana (Anna Elena Pepe) is a hairdresser from Ferrara who has just moved to England.

One day their very different lives meet by chance in a Sicilian restaurant in London, when Daiana suddenly storms in. She urgently needs to find a television to watch the match of her city’s team, SPAL, back in Serie A (the premier league) after 50 years.

It is the beginning of a strange friendship between two very different characters. They are different in age, social status and provenance, but united by the common fate of being Italians abroad… and united by Brexit.

Totò will involuntarily turn into Daiana’s “Pygmalion” and will introduce her to the new city and life. At the same time, thanks to Daiana, Totò will start seeing the world with a new light and will regain some of the enthusiasm he had lost after so many years of immigrant life.

The film is completing his successful festival run, having been a finalist at the Roma Web Fest, Sicily Web Fest, Apulia Web Fest, Molise Cinema the a Winner if the Swap award for the Miami Film Festival end the Caorle Film Festival.

A whole series in now in pre-production and will be ready in 2020 , it will be shooting both in Italy and in the UK and will develop through the stories of the many Italians abroad (the relationship with the home town, the search for a job, a place to live and the fascinating relationship with a city like London and its inhabitants).