Un figlio di nome Erasmus (2020)

Ascanio, Jacopo, Enrico, and Pietro are four friends who shared many adventures in their youth, including an Erasmus exchange program in Portugal in 1999. Twenty years later, they have taken completely different paths: Ascanio is a guru who loves sports, nature, and travel, and runs corporate team-building activities; Jacopo is a devout man of the old school, whose sister Arianna hides from him that she is Buddhist and in a committed relationship with Erika; Enrico is an architect about to marry Diletta, who tends to constantly impose her will on him; and Pietro, unable to become a drummer because of his fear, manages Skizzo, a stupid, arrogant, and rebellious trap artist. A tragic piece of news brings them back together: Amalia, the woman they all loved when they were young during their time abroad, has died. The group therefore sets off for her funeral in Lisbon. There, the woman’s lawyer reveals that she left them a twenty-year-old child, without saying who the father is, so they must take a DNA test to learn the whole truth. Thanks to Alice, a young pregnant woman they meet at the juvenile court, the four manage to get the name (Ricardo Souza) and address where they can find this child, and Alice offers to accompany them as their interpreter and guide. After they set off, Jacopo accidentally discovers his sister’s relationship during a video call with her. This leads to an argument with Ascanio—the girl’s former boyfriend, who left her just short of their wedding—as Ascanio drives the van they are traveling in, and they have a minor accident. Ascanio reveals that he had always known about the girl’s sexual orientation, which is why they became just friends, and that he never told Jacopo because Jacopo would not have accepted it. In the end, the two manage to make peace. While they wait for the van to be repaired, the group spends the night at their old university, partying all evening. Meanwhile, Enrico sees Alexandra again, a former photography teacher of his whom he was in love with, and the two end up making love, betraying Diletta. The next day, just as they are about to leave, an aspiring musician joins the group; Pietro had given him his contact details so he could manage him. During the journey, however, the friends are stopped by the police and discover that their new companion is wanted for drug possession and dealing. Thanks to Jacopo’s connections, they manage to avoid arrest and, despite being given an order to leave the area, decide to continue their journey. On the way, Alice gets the chance to tell her boyfriend Gonzalo that she is pregnant—something she had not told him—but he advises her to have an abortion and takes back the keys to the van, since it belongs to him. To get it back, Ascanio challenges Gonzalo and beats him in a race, but immediately afterward collapses. After being admitted to hospital, Ascanio tells the others that it was a blood-pressure problem related to a sexually transmitted disease. Having stopped to sleep on the beach, Alice tells Ascanio that she knows he is actually seriously ill and might make it if he gets treatment, though he does not believe her. She, in turn, tells him that she believes in keeping three promises in life: “write a book (which I did at school), have a child (and now I’m pregnant), and plant a tree.” The next day, Enrico decides to break up with his fiancée, and Pietro fires his trap artist. During a stop at a service station, the four notice that Alice’s phone is receiving a call from Amalia’s lawyer, saved under the name “Dad.” Thinking they have been deceived, they accuse her of fraud, so Alice takes the van and leaves them behind. Enrico still has Ricardo’s address on his phone’s GPS, and, to get there, the four visit Alexandra at one of her exhibitions and borrow a car from her. Before leaving, Enrico gets the chance to openly confess his feelings to her, while Pietro and Jacopo confront Ascanio after learning about his illness on the way. When they arrive, they discover that the child they were looking for is none other than Alice herself. The lawyer later joins them and explains that she considers him a father, although he is not her father, and that she had told them nothing because Alice wanted to get to know them better. The following day, the group and the lawyer find Alice near the lighthouse where she had planned to plant a tree, which she does together with all four men. Later, the group receives the DNA test results, but Alice tears up the paper and decides not to find out the result, since she considers each of them her father. Some time later, Pietro manages to become a drummer in a Pooh tribute band and gets together with his secretary; Ascanio and Alice set off on a journey to Alaska; and Jacopo becomes a missionary in Brazil and has finally accepted his sister’s relationship. Finally, Enrico and Alexandra marry in Portugal, near the lighthouse where Alice was found. Jacopo officiates the ceremony, and Pietro is Enrico’s best man. Alice is invited with her little son, Erasmus, while it is revealed that Ascanio has died. During the celebrations, Alice goes to the tree she planted with the others and plays Ascanio’s harmonica, without making it clear whether he was actually her biological father.