Genre: Drama

Language: Italian with English Subtitles

Director: Paolo Virzì

Cast: Margherita Buy, Sergio Castellitto, Claudio Amendola & Alice Teghil

Released: 2003

Duration: 105 Minutes

Rating: M contains sexual references

Distribution: Palace Films

Winner 2004 Italian Academy Awards (David di Donatello) Best Supporting Actress plus 1 nomination

In ‘Caterina in the city’ left and right wing lifestyles, so passionately defended in Italy, are seen through the eyes of a thirteen year-old girl. Caterina has recently moved to Rome, the political capital of Italy, from a small town in Tuscany. The music-loving Caterina is dominated by her frustrated and unhappy father Giancarlo (Sergio Castellito), who believes he deserves more from the world. He is the classic high school accounting teacher with his own novel in a desk drawer who relies on his daughter’s newfound friends in the schoolyard, to help him out of his anonymity. Indeed, the naive and honest Caterina somewhat accidentally becomes friends with each of the leaders of her class's two main cliques: the brooding leader of the hippie radical-chic, her mother a writer and her father a famous intellectual; and a wild, precocious girl whose father is one of the chief parliamentarians in the leading right-wing party. Caterina’s life becomes drawn into making choices, all with a political component, that satirically yet accurately reflect the adult world of Italy’s modern-day society. This delightful film was an unexpected Italian box office smash hit and should not be missed

“Caterina is smart, sassy, compassionate and critical.” Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

"The movie uses the competition for Caterina's loyalty to portray the school as a microcosm of Italian society under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Anyway you look at it, it's not a pretty picture." Stephen Holden, New York Times

“Pitch-perfect performances and a light-handed but razor-sharp script keep this satire brisk and biting.” Leslie Camhi, Village Voice.