Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di Ferragosto)

Trained as a stage actor and director, Gianni Di Gregorio began his professional career as a screenwriter. Mid-August Lunch is his directorial debut, which he also wrote and starred in. He plays his mother’s cash-strapped carer in a delightful and witty homage to older people. The film is set in Rome’s Trastevere neighbourhood, abandoned for the Ferragosto holiday on the 15th August. The celebration dates back to Roman times and also coincides with the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Although the film’s original title, Pranzo di Ferragosto, refers to lunch, the holiday can stretch from a long weekend to the entire month. Gianni’s part-autobiographical tale involves 24 hours of chaos when a number of older men who want to get away for the holiday persuade him to look after their aged mothers as well. These astonishingly lively, characterful women, not one a professional actor and all over 90, are the beating heart of the film.