Cento domeniche (2023)

Antonio is a mild-mannered former lathe operator who has managed to build himself a small bubble of happiness. He loves playing bocce with his friends, looking after his elderly mother, and even has a mistress, Adele, who does not want anyone to know about their secret relationship. Antonio’s financial situation is not the best, particularly because his mother needs a hearing aid. For this reason, although he is on early retirement, he continues working at his friend Carlo’s boatyard. After a visit from labor inspectors, Carlo is forced to end his arrangement with Antonio, promising to help him in some other way. Antonio’s daughter, Emilia, tells her father that she and her fiancé Chicco, with whom she runs a small boutique in town, have decided to get married. Antonio is overjoyed, and, being a proud man, cares deeply about honoring the tradition that the bride’s father should bear the wedding expenses. So he goes to the bank to withdraw €30,000 from his savings, an estimate of the expected costs. The branch manager, Dr. Girardi, tells him that his savings were invested in the bank’s shares, after Antonio signed some papers concerning them when he took out his mortgage. Antonio had been convinced that he had invested in safer bonds. The manager says the shares are doing very well and persuades Antonio not to sell them, but instead to sign an application for a €30,000 loan; the loan costs, he says, will be paid from the shares’ “interest,” which are expected to rise further. Things seem to be going wonderfully, until strange rumors about the bank’s financial position begin to circulate. Antonio pays no attention to them, reassured by the employees’ vague assurances, even though he learns that the manager has been transferred to head office and promoted. During the reception for Chicco and Emilia, news arrives that a young bank employee, one of Emilia’s old schoolmates, has died by suicide. On top of that, Adele has given Antonio a resounding rejection, worried that rumors about their relationship are spreading around town. Margherita, Antonio’s ex-wife, urges him to go to the bank immediately and withdraw all his money while he still can, but he keeps putting it off, convinced that, as the employees have said, this is just a temporary downturn that will be followed by strong growth. When the newspaper reports become alarming, account holders begin besieging the bank to get their money back, only to discover that it is no longer possible to move money. Through a female employee, who was also deceived by someone who promised her easy profits, Antonio learns that he has incurred a substantial debt to the bank, from the loan and interest. He begins to suffer from insomnia, and Emilia, worried about her father’s physical and mental condition, suggests postponing the wedding. Antonio will not hear of it: he will not let anything or anyone ruin the dream of a lifetime. The town council organizes a class action by the account holders against the bank, and Antonio joins, though without much conviction. Not even the team of psychologists made available to them to treat the distress caused by this situation of profound uncertainty can dispel the collective anxiety. Antonio ends up arguing with his friends, who say they are willing to help him financially but never miss an opportunity to point out that he was responsible for signing the bank papers too casually. Antonio’s fragile psychological balance breaks when he is told that Carlo, his former employer, managed to get out of the crisis because, thanks to his connections, he moved his money before everything collapsed. At the end of yet another sleepless night, Antonio finally acts and goes to the bank’s headquarters with a rifle. After making everyone present leave, including Carlo, whose life he spares because of their old friendship, Antonio demands to speak to Girardi, whom he holds responsible for his personal financial ruin. In a state of intense agitation, Antonio shoots the new manager in the leg. Apparently calmer, Antonio explains that he does not want to do anything bad; he only wants to know what happened to his money. When the police manage to storm the bank, they find Antonio dead by suicide. Before shooting himself, he had imagined the old game of playing wedding with Emilia, in which he would have walked his now-grown daughter down the aisle.