For Arturo, a forty-year-old actor, success has finally arrived: the TV series in which he plays a separated father is doing quite well. Unexpectedly, however, comes the flipside of his popularity: Mirko, a boy who recently lost his father, has replaced him in his imagination with the character of Arturo. The media is going wild, and the presence of Enrico, the actor's agent, becomes increasingly pressing.
Acting
Salemme's self-aware performance mocking his own career trajectory
Writing
Sharp jabs at Italian television industry self-importance
Production
Chaotic behind-the-scenes showbiz atmosphere feels lived-in

Director
Vincenzo Salemme
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Salemme directed himself here, continuing his career pattern of self-aware comedies about show business that rarely break outside Italian markets.
The film satirizes Italy's 'fiction cultura' phenomenon where soap opera actors become bizarrely entangled with viewers' real lives—a distinctly Mediterranean media pathology.