Il primo Natale (2019)

Sicily, 2019. The church in the small village of Rocca di Mezzo Sicula traditionally puts on a living nativity scene. The preparations are overseen by the parish priest, Don Valentino, a fussy priest who is deeply attached to the image of the iconographic nativity scene and has delegated the task of solving every obstacle to prayer. So whenever a problem arises, he prays instead of taking action. Meanwhile, Salvo, a clumsy, selfish thief of religious relics, discovers the value of a baby Jesus figurine kept in Valentino’s church and decides to steal it for profit. Although he is a convinced atheist, he turns up for auditions for the living nativity scene, where no one manages to meet the priest’s demands. Only Salvo, playing Saint Joseph, wins the part, allowing him to enter the church without attracting attention. Valentino happens to catch him in the act of stealing, and Salvo flees with the relic in his arms, pursued only by the priest. At a dead end, Salvo enters a reed bed, following directions from a mysterious little girl wearing a red sweater. Valentino receives the same directions from her; when the two emerge from the reeds, they find themselves in a desert. Confused and disoriented, they are captured along with other people by Roman soldiers. During the capture, however, Salvo loses the baby Jesus figurine. The two are put to forced labor alongside some revolutionaries, from whom they learn that they are in Palestine at the time of Jesus’s birth. They escape during a revolt, chained together by their ankles. Father Valentino becomes convinced that their only hope is a miracle from Mary, since, according to the priest, Jesus is either still too young to perform miracles or has yet to be born. Salvo is still skeptical about Mary’s existence, and his only concern is getting free of the chains binding him to Valentino. Meanwhile, Herod, king of Judea, learns from a seer that the King of Kings is about to be born, and that only two mysterious travelers from “a very faraway place” will be able to show him where the birth will take place. Salvo and Valentino arrive in Bethlehem, where the blacksmith Nicodemus frees them from their chains. When he discovers that the two cannot pay, he decides to cut off Valentino’s hand, as the law requires. Fortunately, the priest is saved by Isaac, one of the revolutionaries they met when they arrived in the year zero. Isaac takes them to his large family, who are weary of the abuses inflicted by Herod and the Romans, who have even stolen the food they had set aside for the eldest son’s wedding. Here we meet Rebecca, a woman who lost her husband in a battle against Herod, and her daughter Sara. Salvo, meanwhile, tells everyone that he and Valentino were two great revolutionaries who fought all over the world alongside figures such as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Napoleon Bonaparte, and they believe him. A few days later, Valentino helps a woman give birth and suggests naming the baby after his father, Calogero; the parents agree. Hungry, Salvo steals food from a tax collector’s house, intending to keep it for himself. Later, after Sara tricks him, he finds himself at the wedding of two members of Isaac’s family. This earns the family’s trust. Unfortunately, the wedding is ruined by Herod’s soldiers, who, after being paid, had learned from the blacksmith that Isaac’s family was responsible for the theft from the tax collector’s house. This is the last straw for the family, who join with other revolutionaries, the Zealots, and decide to kill the king when he goes to bathe at the baths. Because of the stories Salvo has told about their adventures, he and Valentino are chosen to slit the throats of the two guards at the gate. They have no desire whatsoever to do such a thing, but one of the other revolutionaries threatens them. When they get behind the guards, they give themselves away, and Salvo betrays his companions just to save his own skin. Salvo and Valentino flee, once again finding themselves lost in the desert. As Valentino accuses Salvo of condemning the Zealots to death, they meet an elderly man carrying a walking stick with a rounded tip, together with a pregnant young woman riding a donkey. Mistaking them for Joseph and Mary, Valentino tries to recreate the original nativity scene. Since they have the stable and the donkey but are missing the ox, he asks Salvo to find one. Salvo steals one to please Valentino, also hoping that the Madonna will work a miracle and send them back to 2019, though he is very skeptical about this. Once the misunderstanding is discovered, the two are caught and questioned by Herod’s soldiers, who have come looking for the stolen ox. They explain that they come from “a very faraway place.” The soldiers realize that they are the two travelers in the prophecy and, after chaining them up, take them to Herod’s palace in Jerusalem. At first the king welcomes them kindly. The two also befriend one of Herod’s guests, Isaiah, who comes from Sicily and has brought some “cylindroni,” primitive cannoli. It is they who suggest the name “cannoli,” and they also invent bingo. When Herod starts asking questions about Jesus, the two are tortured, until Valentino, to save his friend, tells him about the comet that they must follow to find Jesus. They are imprisoned next to the cell holding the betrayed revolutionaries, who had been arrested at the baths because of their betrayal. The Zealots, including Isaac and Rebecca, threaten to kill them. Sentenced to death, Salvo and Valentino are taken the next day to a small arena, where a tiger is supposed to kill them. Salvo faints, while Valentino uses the laser measuring device Salvo brought from 2019, turning its beam into a laser toy that confuses the tiger and sends it leaping into the stands. Salvo comes to, and, seeing the tiger flee, becomes blindly faithful, mistaking what happened for a miracle. Valentino, by contrast, has learned to take action and not leave everything to prayer. The two mount a pair of horses and ride off to save Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus from Herod, knowing that the villains will be slower because they are following the comet and do not know it will lead to Bethlehem. During the confusion in the arena, the Zealots also escape from prison. As they race toward Bethlehem, Salvo and Valentino spot a small hut. When they approach, they discover that the Holy Family is inside. With no stable, no ox or donkey, and no bearded Joseph, Valentino realizes that the nativity scene is different from the iconographic one he had always imagined. The two ask Mary for the miracle of returning to 2019, but she replies, “Real miracles are made by people.” Salvo and Valentino do not understand her words at the time and, disappointed, urge Mary and Joseph to flee to Egypt. As the Holy Family moves away, the two magically find on the ground the baby Jesus figurine Salvo lost in the desert a few days earlier. Salvo returns it to Valentino, wishing him a merry Christmas. At the same time, a reed bed lights up, and the two happily realize that it is a doorway back to the present. Perhaps the Madonna has granted them a miracle. But just as they are about to enter the reeds, Rebecca and Isaac stop them, accusing them of being traitors and threatening to kill them. Salvo admits that he lied, but at that moment Herod’s men approach from a distance, and all four are forced to hide behind a bush. Valentino warns them about the massacre of the innocents Herod will cause when he cannot find Jesus. Isaac and Rebecca do not believe them, but then they hear Herod himself say that the killing of Bethlehem’s innocent children is real. Salvo and Valentino decide to take action to save Bethlehem’s children and give up the chance to return to 2019. Perhaps that is what the Madonna meant when she told them that real miracles are made by people. So they mount a horse and, pretending to be Mary and Joseph, draw Herod and his soldiers’ attention, allowing the revolutionaries to hurry to Bethlehem and warn the inhabitants of Herod’s murderous plans. Salvo and Valentino fortunately manage to elude their pursuers, and later reach the families of Bethlehem and the children who had fled under cover of night to escape death. Thanks to their sacrifice, they have regained the people’s respect. Herod, intent on taking revenge, asks the Bethlehem blacksmith where the children have fled, but the blacksmith replies that he betrays adults, not children. Joseph’s cousin is the one who is bribed into revealing the direction of the caravan, while the poor blacksmith is killed. The soldiers catch up with the fleeing group, but they manage to escape aboard the ship of Herod’s elderly guest, Isaiah, who is bound for Sicily. A storm breaks out during the voyage, threatening to kill the refugees. Just as a gigantic wave is about to engulf the boat, Valentino and Salvo see again the mysterious little girl in the red sweater whom they saw at the beginning of the story. A moment later, the wave crashes down on the boat. The next morning, the ship finds itself in Sicily in 2019. Everything seems to be going well, but the Coast Guard orders them to stop. To the great disappointment of all the shipwreck survivors, they discover that they are not safe. “I’d let you in, but we don’t know where to put you,” says a Coast Guard officer through a megaphone. At this point, Father Valentino has an idea: “I know where to put them.” In the final scene, all the fleeing people, smiling and happy, take part in the living nativity scene in the village of Rocca di Mezzo Sicula.