Reality

Luciano is a Neapolitan fishmonger who does small-time cons with his wife, Maria, to make ends meet. Thanks to his likeable character, Luciano never misses an opportunity to entertain his customers at the fish shop and his numerous relatives. One day, urged on by his family, he auditions for the show, Big Brother. From that moment on, his perception of reality will never be the same again.

After Gomorrah, I wanted to do something different, go in a different direction, so I made a comedy. The film arose from a simple, chronicled story that we transfigured into a reflection of a contemporary landscape: a journey across a country.
An exploration made of dreams and the expectations of these dreams that develops on two levels: an external one, geographic, and an internal one, psychological. Two levels that are tightly connected. In fact, the cultural landscape generates the characters who bring our story to life.
Reality is a film about how one perceives reality. It is the story of a man who leaves reality and enters his imagination. 

I always thought of Luciano, the main character of the film, as a modern-day Pinocchio; a man with child-like innocence and candour. In fact, as I was filming, I followed him as if he were having an amazing adventure. 

While shooting, I was continuously searching for a subtle balance between reality and dream; figuratively looking for a fairy tale-like dimension, a sort of “magic realism”.