Synopsis

In the mind of a boy who grew up on the streets, between car chases on the Califfone and broad daylight shootouts, everything can become magical. Even Napoli's ten league titles won solo, juggling balls in the courtyard. Even the fight between Saint George and the dragon on the church wall. If You Want to Live Happy is the story of a child saved by his imagination. It's the other side of Gomorrah: life in the light, the kind that sprouts unexpectedly and new like a sprout in the middle of the asphalt. We're in Pianura, a suburb of Naples, in the 1980s. Those who live there call it the Wild West. Fortunato is ten years old, with an unstoppable hunger—for food, for stories, and for love—and an unbridled imagination. His family calls him 'the astrologer,' the one who knows things. When he grows up, he wants to be a Neapolitan singer. But also an actor. Even an astronaut wouldn't be bad. Or he can pick up Patrizio's Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, the Bulldog's son, from the floor and start shooting like so many others. He lives in two rooms with his parents, his three brothers, and his grandmother, who arrived unexpectedly after a huge rock fell on the roof of his house—or so the adults say—threatening to break through the ceiling. What few know is that Fortunato has a dream bigger than himself, something that keeps him awake at night. To go far away, to dash away. Because life runs, and it must be caught.