Cover Boy

The story of the friendship between Ioan and Michele respectively Romanian and Italian. The serendipitous encounter of two worlds apart: the travails of a young man, son of the Post-Communist Revolution, who flees his country in search of a better future and the travails of another youth who instead scrapes along the margins of a Western society that is unable to offer gainful employment to so much of its youth. In the background of this rapport between a simple Romanian youth and his marginalized Italian counterpart, there is a West which on one side is still reeling from the collapse of the Communist ideology and on the other, in the clutches of a Capitalist myth which has increasingly assumed, as it propulsive force, harsh competitiveness and an intensification of social inequality.

Directed by Carmine Amoroso, Cover Boy leans on a strong ensemble — Chiara Caselli, Walter D'Errico, Eduard Gabia — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about drama titles of 2008.