Famous Italian film actor and modern day Lothario, Saverio Crispo (Francesco Scianna) has been dead 10 years and to celebrate the anniversary of his passing, the women in his life – 2 wives and 5 daughters – gather in a big house in the Apulia village where the actor was born.
All five daughters have different mothers from different nationalities – each representing a phase in Saverio’s international film career. In fact, for every period there is a corresponding affair with each partner left with a child.
The Italian daughter shares the original home with wife one while the French daughter – a moderately successful actress who has never felt part of the clan – arrives with the youngest of her three children, each of whom have been sired by a different father.
The Spanish daughter Segunda (Candela Peña) is the only married one and she comes with Alfonso, her unrepentant cheating husband (Jordi Mollà) and their two sons.And finally Solveig, the Swedish daughter (Pihla Viitala) whom the father hardly ever saw arrives to join the party.
The only one missing is the youngest daughter, an American (Nadeah Miranda) born during the Hollywood period.
In the midst of the celebrations, when the fifth daughter is yet to arrive, Saverio’s stunt double Pedro del Rio (Lluís Homar) enters, demanding to be part of the family celebrations. Disturbingly, the stuntman seems to know more about the actor than anyone else.
It doesn’t take long before the women realize that Pedro’s relationship with Saverio wasn’t limited to stunt work and like many before him, Saverio had shared his bed with men as well as women.
Amid press conferences and public spectacles, the daughters and widows are drawn together, and at night, with a few glasses of wine to loosen them up, trawl through their memories of the iconic actor – realizing that none of them really knew the man whom each had idolized during the different periods of his magnificent career.
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This charming and beautifully crafted ensemble comedy is held together by the complexities of the relationships and the fact that each daughter has a different perspective of the man they called Pepe’. And despite being ostensibly about women, it is Saverio who has control of their lives – even after death. The film received four nominations at the 2015 David Di Donatello Awards and marked the final screen appearance of Virna Lisi who died of cancer last year.
'Latin Lover' plays as part of the Lavazza Italian Film Festival.
Italian Film Festival Dates
15 September – 11 October (Sydney)16 September – 11 October (Melbourne)
17 September – 7 October (Adelaide)
18-27 September (Byron Bay)
22 September – 11 October (Canberra)
24 September – 14 October (Perth)
1-18 October (Brisbane)
15-21 October (Hobart)
