Walter Nicoletti

The story of Jesus in virtual reality

Maria Celeste is a widow that lives in a retirement home. She is stingy, unpleasant, solitary and looks down on people. Every Sunday Maria sits alone on the park bench, though she tells everyone that she goes to her son's to cook a lovely meal. But on that Sunday, while dozing on the bench, a young girl places a ten month old baby in her arms and runs away leaving Maria stunned and confused. Finally the girl comes back and they start to know each other. The girl asks Maria to take the baby for a second, crosses the street and a tram hits her. She dies without a reason on a warm summer morning. Maria is alone with the baby. Her Maria Celeste's story begins.

Five down-on-their luck strangers meet by chance while looking at a property in the country none of them are able to afford. They decide to join forces and risk everything to turn it into a B&B, only for the local mafia to show up demanding their "fair" share.

In their village of Puglia (Southern part of Italy on the Adriatic side) Federico and Riccardo have been best friends since childhood. Federico is a penniless playboy, while Riccardo is a young fashion designer. To pursue his dream, Riccardo trades his home for Milan. When Frederick discovers that the Puglia Region provides funding in support of business activities, he convinces Riccardo to come back and open a fashion house. But there is a problem: funding is only available to common law couples, and so Federico and Riccardo must pretend to be a gay couple, and enlist the help of the local newspaper editor, a journalist and Richard’s despotic girlfriend ..

A cinic director and his assistant come back to Basilicata, their homeland, looking for redemption. 50 years aged and aristically loser, they try to shoot a rickety investigative movie titled "Il Vangelo secondo Mattei" in the same location where Pasolini filmed his "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" but focusing on the disasters caused by oil extractions in their wasteland of Basilicata, in the south of Italy. As main character, they choose Franco, 70 years old, that was an extra in Pasolini film...