Baci e abbracci (1999)

The story centers on two failing enterprises: a restaurant whose owner has had the establishment’s assets seized, and a family starting an ostrich farm. The restaurant owner is named Mario, as is a regional councilor who is engaged to one of the ostrich farmers’ relatives. The councilor is invited by the farmers to Christmas lunch, an excuse through which they hope to secure a loan. At the station, however, they mistake the councilor for the other Mario, partly because their partners have the same name. This leads to an absurd situation: the councilor has to go home after waiting in vain at the station, while the “fake” councilor is treated like an honored guest by the family, bewildered but convinced that his wife, with whom his relationship has deteriorated, will get in touch the next day. The following day, after a long series of misunderstandings and embarrassing situations, the mistake is cleared up—but by then it is too late. The loan is irrevocably lost, and the farm’s owners are desperate. Mario is about to leave the farmhouse when, at the last moment, he decides to put his talent to use by preparing a meal to console the distraught family. The meal is so well received that the guests decide to turn the farmhouse into a restaurant and the ostriches into a tourist attraction.