Directed by:Lorenzo Giroffi
Starring: Alberto, Amir, Andrea, Caro, Francesco, Ivan, Mattia, Rafael, Rayene, Nina, Antonio
Year:2023
Country: Italia
Running Time: 19’
Produced by: Lunia Film
Plot:A group of very young guys moves in a very narrow street, an alley in the historic center of Naples. They knock on doors, enter buildings, ask for some coins in order to accomplish their mission. It’s March 2023, the street urchins don’t accept to see the other neighborhoods full of banners and flags of Napoli football team while their vico San Mandato is still bare. They decide to meet through their Whatsapp group called “The mustache family”. It looks like a treasure hunt in the maze of stairs, which, despite being in their alley, they have never seen. It’s another style, another economy. The urchins of via San Mandato collect money to buy brushes, paints, white and blue ribbons. The victory of the championship by Napoli football team, after 33 years since its last triumph, seems to be close to happen this year. However, the month of March has been the usual black news page for the city of Naples: a twelve-year-old got stabbed and an innocent eighteen-year-old killed by a gunshot in a gang fight. Carlo, Rayene, Alberto, Rafael, Amir, Francesco, Andrea, Mattia and Ivan know these problems, some of them got already involved in them. They see a possibility in Napoli football team’s victory, a joy that might be ephemeral, but it is something they have never imagined to experience. It is the demonstration that happiness is possible even without risking, a kind of emancipation from the discrimination they have constantly felt on their skin due to the reduced possibilities offered by their alley. They only had the chance to hear about the last Championship celebrations from their parents, uncles, and grandparents who passed down Maradona’s deeds as a common good. Decorating the alley is their mission. With their stories of resistance and brotherhood they stay out of troubles. They live the alley and their football field. They call it football field by using a lot of imagination and fantasy as it is just an air vent of Salvator Rosa metro station. Yet, it’s the only space they found in the alley and renewed for their purpose. There, the nine kids play soccer, meet and grow up together. There, they meet to go buying decorations, from there they start to paint the posts, hoist the ribbons, wait for the day of celebration and catch up with the other neighborhoods of the city. There is hope and disappointment in their waiting, and then finally the explosion of celebrations that leads the boys away from the alley, up to Piazza Plebiscito, a place they never go to, but which belongs to everyone on the day of celebration. Nothing is far away on May 4, 2023 for the guys of “The alley of Dreams”.
