Alain Parroni’s debut feature is a whirlwind following the entwined lives of three millennials met with the fleetingness of youth in the heart of Rome.
Grasping for self-knowledge, dying to be noticed and remembered, and pickpocketing the odd unsuspecting tourist, the inseparable trio of Alex (Enrico Bassetti), Brenda (Federica Valentini), and Kevin (Zackari Delmas) are millennials from Rome’s working-class outskirts. They’re wild. They’re free. And, like most youth, they have no sense of mortality.
It’s a scorching summer and with nothing on the horizon, the haplessly impulsive 19-year-olds roam the city streets in a yellow 1999 Fiat Punto Bertone convertible, party all night, and cause a ruckus. Having decided it’s better to be young and beautiful parents, Alex and Brenda are expecting, and Alex begins working for a local jack-of-all-trades (played by the brilliant Lars Rudolph, star of the recently restored 2000 film Werckmeister Harmonies, TIFF ’22). Unemployed and always around, Kevin, the third wheel, begins spending more time with Brenda. As adulthood creeps in, the emotionally unprepared youth are put to the test.
The three actors are explosive in depicting the effervescence of youth. Produced by Domenico Procacci (Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, TIFF ’08; Francesca Archibugi’s The Hummingbird, TIFF ’22) and Wim Wenders (who was honoured at TIFF’s Ebert Filmmakers Tribute in 2017 and whose latest film Perfect Days is also screening at this year’s Festival) alongside Giorgio Gucci and Fabrizio Moretti, shot by Andrea Benjamin Manenti to evoke the nostalgic impact of classic cinema, and pulsating with Shirō Sagisu’s epic score, An Endless Sunday takes us on the masterful ride of a lifetime. Alain Parroni’s debut feature is an unforgettable, bombastic punch to the gut, unveiling an auteur in the making.DOROTA LECH
Official Selection, 2023 Toronto International Film Festival
Content advisory: explicit violence, coarse language