The premise is: the earth is in bad shape, so much so that God himself (Giovanni Storti) is thinking of a second flood, but without the saving ark. However, since there is still democracy in the Celestial Assembly in Heaven, a second option passes through only one point: providing human beings with a new Messiah. This is the background of «Santocielo», Christmas comedy by Francesco Amato and eighth film by Ficarra and Picone which arrives in theaters from December 14th in over 600 copies distributed by Medusa.
The task of touching the belly of the person who will carry the new son of God is entrusted to the gentlest of angels, Aristide (Valentino Picone), who should make the chosen one pregnant with a single touch. Once he arrives on Earth, however, the angel accidentally touches the wrong belly, that of a man, Nicola (Salvo Ficarra) who becomes pregnant with the new Messiah. «The funny thing is – underlines Ficarra – that my Nicola is a bigoted and chauvinist man who has to experience something as feminine as pregnancy, something that allows him to evolve, finally putting himself in other people’s shoes. And this in a film that talks a lot about women and pays a lot of attention to the female world.”
In «Santocielo», a film about prejudices and, at the same time, about hope, Nicola, unhappy after having broken up with his ex-wife Giovanna (Maria Chiara Giannetta), a psychologist full of problems, tries to mend things with her and to do “ family”, especially now that he is the one waiting for the child they wanted so much. But even the angel Aristide has his anxieties. If in heaven he had the sole ambition of singing in the choir of the Celestial Assembly, here on earth he will discover that he has unexpected feelings, completely reciprocated, for the very young Sister Luisa (Maria Chiara Giannetta).
«We had long wanted to make a film about angels, something that Francesco Amato also wanted. We compared our ideas, but then we chose a new path – Ficarra always says –. It was the film itself that at a certain point suggested where to go, what themes to choose. There is, for example, my character who searches for love and then discovers he has it inside. Then there is the angel, a character who in the end becomes humanized and understands his true mission, there is Sister Luisa who does not understand what she is experiencing and, finally, there is the theme of rights, not least how right to regulate love.”
«To tell the story of the first pregnant man and the angel who clumsily impregnated him, we chose the sentimental path, where the event of pregnancy is a tool that accounts for the intimate emotional movements of the characters – says the director -. An internal journey where feelings, Nicola’s for Giovanna and Aristide’s for Luisa, guide the story and the tone of the story. Ficarra and Picone’s comedy evolves. It goes beyond the usual relationship with the public.”
Finally, to those who remind the two Sicilian comedians that religion is always present to varying degrees in their films, Picone replies: «Yes, it’s true, it has always been there in our films, perhaps because as a boy I was an altar boy and, if I wanted, I could even say the Mass, but in any case religion ultimately makes you discover how much more evolved it is than we imagine.”