Synopsis

A sixteen-year-old boy, a life at the mercy of the law of the strongest. Astride his Vespa, Luigi collects money from every corner of Naples, like a postman, like a tax collector. Vomero, Ferrovia, Tribunali, all the way to Posillipo, "a place where it was too quiet and even though it was beautiful, because it truly was beautiful, it didn't make you feel good." Luigi speaks little but keeps his eyes wide open. His heart is in turmoil, no one accompanies him on his wanderings in search of the one object of his desire, Ninetta. A sixteen-year-old girl, the girlfriend of Gaetano, the new gang boss just released from Poggioreale prison, the new, merciless Camorra boss, whose destiny is inexorably marked by violence. Around Luigi is a shattered, dark world, but filled with melancholy and regret. Who are his friends? Vittorio, his old boss, who used to deliver his monthly payments and who strangled a boxer puppy just because it stared at him. Pasqualino, his small, sickly brother, who in his sleep recites the names of the ancient deities he learned about in school: Hermes, the messenger of the gods, Jupiter who hurls lightning bolts from Olympus, Neptune who governs the forces of the sea and the song of the sirens. And his mother, a widow who lives locked in the guardhouse of an ancient, crumbling building and who appears to him like a Madonna filled with tears. Luigi already lives on memories, on a silent hope. He is neither man nor god, and he carries around Naples, and always with him, the torment of a longing for happiness.