La storia del Frank e della Nina (2024)

Milan. In an abandoned industrial complex, a gang of thieves is stealing copper cables when, suddenly, security guards catch them in the act. They turn the power back on, forcing the thieves into a chaotic escape. This provides the pretext for a flashback in which the protagonist, Carlo, known as Gollum, a young man who has replaced words with his graffiti, begins telling the story of how he met Frank—a boy with almost no past, since he “stopped existing a couple of years ago.” Frank makes a living reselling homework outside a school while waiting to turn eighteen and run away. The two meet Nina, a girl of Roma origin who, despite being very young, has already been given in marriage to “the Duce,” a violent man who is often drunk and with whom she has a little girl. Nina spends her days working to earn money to support her daughter, knowing that only through education will she have a chance to escape her circumstances. In this situation, Frank promises to prepare her for the middle-school leaving exam, and the three begin studying in secret from Nina’s husband, holding “clandestine” lessons in all sorts of places to avoid his fury and the inevitable bureaucracy that threatens to obstruct their chance at a better life. But the Duce soon discovers their secret, and Frank, rather than give up on Nina’s dream, decides to offer himself and Gollum as helpers in the shady dealings the Duce runs: he is, in fact, the leader of a gang of copper thieves. But the situation does not settle down; instead, the urgency of escaping that environment grows ever more pressing for the three young people and Nina’s little daughter. Frank therefore decides to take refuge in a small house on the outskirts of Milan where an unusual character known as the Commander lives. Just when the trio seem to have found a safe haven, Frank’s past—which until then had been sketched out and romanticized in the stories he told his friends—comes forcefully back to life. The three have no choice but to try to flee before reality comes between them and the freedom each of them is seeking.