Genre: Romantic Comedy

Language: Italian with English Subtitles

Director: Francesco Munzi

Cast: Sandra Ceccarelli, Aurélien Recoing, Stefano Cassetti, Laura Vasiliu, Constantin Lupescu, Victor Cosma, Valentina Cervi

Released: 2008

Duration: 100 Minutes

Rating: R16 contains violence, offensive language, drug use & sex scenes

Distribution: Palace Films

Selected for Directors’ Fortnight at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, ‘The Rest of the Night’ is a biting and poignant drama. After his brilliant first film (Saimir) Francesco Munzi once again turns his gaze to an increasingly changing, multicultural Italy in this film made up of three intersecting stories.

In the wealthy industrialized northeast where tensions and prejudices seem the most rampant, Silvana Bourin (Sandra Ceccarelli), the depressed wife of a provincial industrialist, persuades herself that Maria (Laura Vasiliu ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days’), their young Romanian maid, is stealing valuable objects from them. With no proof and against her husband’s wishes, Silvana decides to fire Maria without notice.

Maria finds shelter with her former boyfriend, Ionut (Constantin Lupescu) and the spark is soon rekindled. The young man has just been released from prison and now shares a hovel with his younger teenaged brother who is not happy to see her back in his brother’s life.   Ionut meanwhile has found an accomplice in Marco, an angry drug addict who has lost custody of his son and the two plot a robbery at the industrialist’s villa.

Beautifully understated, and building to a tremendously tense conclusion, Munzi interweaves the lives of people from different classes with their different prejudices and fears.  He plays with the image of an immigrant community, gradually uncovering the roots of the stereotype, while his exploration of the northern Italian nouveau riche reveals their isolation, emptiness and hypocrisy.  Without moralizing or passing judgment Munzi offers a powerful portrait of contemporary Italy.