Synopsis

It's the summer of 1985, and in Badiascarna, a tiny village nestled in the Tuscan hills far from the art cities and picture-perfect vineyards, Sauro Terra passes the time hunting lizards and confiding in the David Bowie poster hanging in his bedroom. At fourteen, he doesn't know what to do with his life, but one thing is clear to him: when he grows up, he will be the exact opposite of his father. Since being sent into early retirement by the NovaLago geothermal power plant, Rino Terra has cut ties with the world and now wanders the woods reciting bizarre pamphlets of communist militancy. Even though he can't know it yet, his lungs are filled with asbestos fibers; the asbestos that broke away from the NovaLago steam ducts and, like an invisible snowfall, is covering all of Badiascarna. Tired of constantly chasing his father, Sauro calls together his friends—Momo, a scrawny, fearful boy; the Doctor, with his icy eyes and the arrogance of a man with nothing to lose; and Trifo, a troubled boy who has disturbing visions before falling asleep—and starts a punk band. Who cares if their rehearsal room is the freezer of a slaughterhouse? Or if none of them can play? When Bea, a magnetic, wheat-haired girl, joins the band, everything seems perfect. The night before their debut concert, however, Trifo's sudden disappearance shatters the band's dreams. Twenty years later, nothing has changed in Badiascarna: the power plant workers still gather in the only bar, and the steam ducts sparkle in the sun, reminding the residents of their fate. Only Sauro, in his city apartment, seems different, light years away from the boy he once was. But when a phone call informs him that Rino, the father who kicked him out of the house for no apparent reason in 1985, has seemingly vanished, Sauro agrees to return to look for him. Even though he won't admit it, this trip is his last chance to find answers to the questions that have never stopped tormenting him: why did his father send him away from home? What happened to Trifo? And what happened to his former companions?