Solino (2002)

In the sixties Romano Amato, his wife Rosa and their two sons Giancarlo and Gigi emigrate from Solino in Italy to Duisburg in the Ruhr area and establish the first Pizza restaurant in town.... See full summary »

Director:

Fatih Akin

Writer:

Ruth Toma

Stars:

Barnaby Metschurat, Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Tasche

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christian Tasche	...	Jos Vater
Barnaby Metschurat	...	Gigi
Tiziana Lodato	...	Ada
Antonella Attili	...	Rosa
Moritz Bleibtreu	...	Giancarlo
Annika Schmitz	...	Jo Kind
Patrycia Ziolkowska	...	Jo
Nicola Cutrignelli	...	Gigi Kind
Michele Ranieri	...	Giancarlo Kind
Cesare Mele	...	Umberto Kind
Franco Javarone	...	Alfredo
Pino Cacace	...	Carabiniere
Giuseppe Fernando Caputo	...	Rosas Vater
Rosa Di Brigida	...	Paola
Giuseppe De Rosa	...	Antonio

Storyline

In the sixties Romano Amato, his wife Rosa and their two sons Giancarlo and Gigi emigrate from Solino in Italy to Duisburg in the Ruhr area and establish the first Pizza restaurant in town. Their business emerges well and both children get used to Germany. 10 years later the brothers fall in love with the same woman; they break tie with each other in anger and Gigi returns to Solino with his mother. A decade later both meet again and have a retrospect on their lives.

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Plot Keywords:

restaurant | pizza | bare chested male | sex | kitchen | 

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Genres:

Drama | Comedy

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Barnaby Metschurat had to learn Italian for his role, while Moritz Bleibtreu already spoke it fluently.

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Connections

References The Damned (1969)

User Reviews

A human, complex and sweet portrait of an immigrant immigrant family

Akin deals with two of his favorite themes here; the experience of the immigrant outsider, and food. Both run through his later films, but even here are approached with energy and humanity.

The story of an Italian family that moves to Germany to in the hopes of getting better work, the film spans 20 years. The first act takes place in 1964, as the family makes the move and the 2 brothers who are the children try to adjust. Jump forward 10 years to 1974 and the film moves from sweet light sentiment to something a little darker and more complex, as the brothers are now young adults, pulling away from the family, and grappling with what they want out of life and the tensions caused by their naturally different temperaments.

While not at the level of his later amazing works like "Head-On" and "The Edge of Heaven", this is an entertaining and very human movie that manages to be a portrait of a struggling family, that's neither horribly depressing, or sticky sweet and cute.

It's very frustrating, but there seems to be no officially released DVD with English subtitles.

Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German Italian

Release Date:

7 November 2002 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Солино

Filming Locations:

Apulia, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

DEM10,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,034,779

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wüste Film, Wüste Film West GmbH, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min 114 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1