L'arrivo di Wang (2011)

The Chinese interpreter Gaia Aloisi is urgently hired for a job in Rome, at a hidden underground location, by a mysterious man named Curti. When she arrives, she is led into a dark room to translate the words of an individual called Wang, who speaks exclusively in Chinese. After the first few questions, the strange conversation and the darkness make her nervous, so she insists that they turn on the lights. After some resistance, Curti agrees. When the lights come on, she realizes that the mysterious Chinese-speaking individual is actually a clumsy gray alien with tentacles. Once she accepts the idea, the dialogue, which takes the form of an interrogation, continues. Curti insists on finding out Wang’s intentions, why he is on Earth, what he has done since arriving a few weeks earlier, and, above all, what a small object he had previously possessed is. Wang continues to maintain that he came in peace to engage in a cultural exchange between species and that he simply went into hiding when he realized humans were hostile to him. Curti, however, grows agitated, does not believe him, and threatens him. Gaia senses that the alien is sincere and is actually suffering, so she tries to mediate through her translation, which only infuriates Curti. At one point, the man summons a third person, Falco, so that they can torture Wang with electric shocks and make him tell a version of events that will convince Curti. Gaia manages to escape the interrogation cell by using a trick, but meanwhile the alarm sounds and part of the base is evacuated. Moved, she decides not to flee but to free Wang and take him with her. Wang then retrieves the object that Curti’s men had taken from him. Once they escape from the base, however, Gaia discovers that Rome has been attacked and partially destroyed by numerous flying saucers. The alien behind her mocks her, calling her an idiot, and uses the object to activate a shield he had been building, capable of destroying human military vehicles, while a huge fleet of spacecraft is approaching Earth.