Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Luigi Lo Cascio | ... | Salvatore | |
Donatella Finocchiaro | ... | Ida | |
Matteo Simoni | ... | Rocco | |
Evelien Bosmans | ... | Helena | |
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Cristiaan Campagna | ... | Young Rocco |
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Marte Bosmans | ... | Young Helena |
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Maité Redal | ... | Wanda |
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Warre Borgmans | ... | Mister Somers |
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Chris van den Durpel | ... | Tony Bruno |
Flor Decleir | ... | Jacky | |
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Jobst Schnibbe | ... | Hans Kumberger |
Mattias Van de Vijver | ... | Renaat (as Mattias Van De Vijver) | |
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Landerik Boie | ... | Young Renaat (as Landerik Boe) |
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Federica Marinò | ... | Young Wanda |
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Pieter-Jan De Wyngaert | ... | Jos |
Salvatore Granata is a rather poor man who lives with his wife, son and daughter in Calabria in Italy. One day Salvatore decides to move to Belgium to work in the coal mine of Waterschei as a "gastarbeider," an immigrant worker. His family will stay in Italy as Salvatore will only be in Belgium for three years. He hopes to earn much money in a rather small time frame so he can buy a forge for his son Rocco who is now still a 9 year old boy. After a year, Salvatore decides his family should be with him, so they also move to Belgium. They soon discover the life of a "gastarbeider" is difficult: they have to live in some kind of barracks, they are neglected by the Belgian people and they do not earn much. They are astonished when they hear Salvatore signed a contract of five years and children of "gastarbeiders" ought to work in the mines as soon they leave high school. Rocco meets Helena, the daughter of the local grocer. However, the man is a racist and forbids his daughter to play ... Written by diefartz
I get that the fans of this performer would upvote and favorably review a bio-pic about him.
but as a film this is an amazingly turgid string of cliches and tropes, poor, sometimes absurd dialogue and no meaningful narrative. It is a boring predictable slog to watch it.