Synopsis

In the summer of 1967, the Civette (little owls) invade Partinico. In this Sicilian village lives Luca, a fourteen-year-old boy who hates books, school, and studying. His only passions, in a world devoid of stimulation, dreams, and illusions, are pinball and soccer played on a bare field contested by the Mezzocuore (half-hearted), young, half-human, and infamous men led by the monstrous Saverio, known as Maciste. Fighting against these savages are Luca and the Signorini gang from the wealthy neighborhood, led by the charismatic and charming Sasà. It seems like a summer like any other, but suddenly Damiano Damiani's film crew arrives with a stellar cast. They include Franco Nero and, above all, the pearl of Italian cinema, the beautiful Claudia Cardinale. Luca falls madly in love with her and can't let go. The Flight of the Owls is a high-voltage shock for Partinico: girls' skirts get shorter, students' hair gets longer, merchants' businesses boom, and the mafia stands by and watches until u Signuruzzu, the old, religious boss and hermit, discovers the film's true theme. Enter Liborio, a time-wasting card player, tasked with kidnapping Franco Nero. Luca discovers the plan and dreams of foiling it to delay the departure of Cardinale, with whom he has developed a tender, intense relationship, full of adolescent erotic urges. The story, told by Luca forty years later, remains poised between dream and reality.