Italian movies about the meaning of life

A mosaic of several intertwined stories questioning the meaning of life, love and hope, set during the last six days in the life of Eluana Englaro, a young woman who spent 17 years in a vegetative state.

Riko is an honest man, who can count on a group of real friends and a wife who, between highs and lows, he loves forever. But he is also a very angry man with his time, which seems to be punctuated only by backlashes and false starts.

A big family that like any other one includes relatives that see each other often and others that rarely meet, reunite to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of grandma Alba and grandpa Pietro in a big Villa, on the island they moved to. Because of weather conditions they all remain stranded on the island and the idyll between them seems to be over.

In a Naples suspended between magic and superstition, madness and rationality, a mystery envelops the existence of Adriana (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), overwhelmed by a sudden love and a violent crime.

A retired lawyer becomes friends with a young wife who has just moved in the adjacent apartment with her family.

Michele is thirteen year old, shy, unpopular at school, and in love with Stella. After wearing a costume for a Halloween party, he finds out that he's invisible.

An ambitious soccer referee ends up handling a crucial match between two small Sardinian teams

The suicide of a prominent wine producer unleashes a series of mysterious murders.

A gay couple living in San Francisco takes in two strangers traveling from Italy to start a new life in America, discovering each other and forming the most unlikely of relationships along the way.

In 1980s Naples, young Fabietto pursues his love for football as family tragedy strikes, shaping his uncertain but promising future as a filmmaker.

Romantic comedy from Academy Award winner Susanne Bier (Brothers, In a Better World), about two very different families brought together for a wedding in a beautiful old Italian villa.

A father, who calls himself "open" and tolerant and fights against any form of discrimination, reveals himself as not so liberal when his son announces the engagement to his partner. Overwhelmed by the news, he regresses into the most fierce opponent of same sex marriage, and tries to undermine his son's happiness with a series of embarrassing situations.

In Verona, bad blood between the Montague and Capulet families leads to much bitterness. Despite the hostility, Romeo Montague manages an invitation to a masked ball at the estate of the Capulets and meets Juliet, their daughter. The two are instantly smitten but dismayed to learn that their families are enemies. Romeo and Juliet figure out a way to pursue their romance, but Romeo is banished for his part in the slaying of Juliet's cousin, Tybalt.

Story about two brothers and their wives, and the interactions between them and their two high school age children. When the kids get into serious trouble together, how will the parents relationships change with and among each other? Will the parents protect the kids or force them to face the consequences of their actions?

While trying to make his sister's wedding day go smoothly, Jack finds himself juggling an angry ex-girlfriend, an uninvited guest with a secret, a misplaced sleep sedative, and the girl that got away in alternate versions of the same day.

Alberto (Claudio Bisio), post office manager of a small town in Brianza, under pressure of his wife Sylvia (Angela Finocchiaro), is willing to do anything to get the transfer to Milan. Even pretending to be disabled to climb in the ranking. But the trick does not work and as punishment, he is transferred in a small town in Campania, which to an inhabitant of the north is equivalent to a nightmare ...

Ayiva recently left his home in Burkina Faso in search of a way to provide for his sister and his daughter. He takes advantage of his position in an illegal smuggling operation to get himself and his best friend Abas off of the continent. Ayiva adapts to life in Italy, but when tensions with the local community rise, things become increasingly dangerous. Determined to make his new situation work he attempts to weather the storm, but it has its costs.

Alessandro, a forty-year-old widower pediatrician, lives with his teenage son, leading a monotonous and insipid existence. After a call from an old friend in Brazil, the man has his tired stability tested.

Rome, 1984, Aria is nine-year-old girl. On the verge of divorce, Aria's infantile and selfish parents are too preoccupied with their careers and extra-marital affairs to properly tend to any of Aria's needs. While her two older sisters are pampered, Aria is treated with cold indifference. Yet she yearns to love and to be loved. At school, Aria excels academically but is considered a misfit by everyone. She is misunderstood. Aria finds comfort in her cat - Dac and in her best friend - Angelica. Thrown out of both parents' homes, abandoned by all, even her best friend, Aria finally reaches the limit of what she can bear. She makes an unexpected decision in her life.

In the suburbs of Rome, two disparate lives with only desire for vengeance and redemption in common find their destinies intertwined. Massimo's mind is plagued with images of his wife's violent death at the hands of a criminal gang involved in the production of snuff films. With every memory of the woman he loved replaced by unforgettable images of her horrific final moments, Massimo sees only one chance to take back his life: find the wealthy individual who commissioned the sickening murder - and make them pay. Barabba, a recently released convict, hopes to keep a promise he made to his father and start a new life with his brother, Spaccio, far from the violent world that they used to inhabit. Discovering that his brother is involved in the snuff gang, Barabba seeks to change things the only way he knows how: through violence and bloodshed.

After a divorce, Sophia moves to the south of Italy with her daughter, Helena. Their new home, an apartment within an austere building of the fascist age, is a chance for them to start a new life. But inside an old storage room hides a mysterious closet and a buried secret. After the loss of Helena’s first baby tooth, a chilling obsession begins and an apparition haunts her sleep...

A story set in the 90s and in the outskirts of Rome to Ostia. A world where money, luxury cars, night clubs, cocaine and synthetic drugs are easy to run. A world in which Vittorio and Cesare, in their early twenties, act in search of their success.

Nevermind is an episodic comedy film. In each episode, we see common characters forced to suffer extremely weird, disturbing and paradoxical situations. These situations sometimes seem incredible but yet... can happen.

The story of the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother to convince his billionaire grandfather Jean Paul Getty to pay the ransom.

A study of the friendship between a Chinese woman and a fisherman who came to Italy from Yugoslavia many years ago, who live in a small city-island in the Veneto lagoon.

Featuring never-before-seen footage, concert performances and intimate interviews, filmmaker Ron Howard examines the life and career of famed opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti.

A Sicilian family deals with the arrival of a group of immigrants on their island.

A small Sicilian town elects a new, honest major but quickly learns that playing by the rules is not as easy as it seems

Two young boys, Valerio and Christian, form a powerful friendship over the summer.

A former narcotics smuggler, now living peaceably in the Calabrian hills, is drawn back into his family’s drug-trade dynasty by his impetuous teenage son.

The life story of Italian violinist and composer, Niccolò Paganini, who rose to fame as a virtuoso in the early 19th Century.

Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise’s son will change his world.

The elections are approaching and the largest opposition party in the country do not look good. Its leader, Enrico Oliveri can not stand the pressure and disappears. Fearing a scandal, the eminence grise of the party had brought into play the twin brother of the politician. Even if looks like two drops of water with his brother Giovanni may have a different personality. His ideas are innovative and direct approach to get the party in the polls ...

A chronicle biopic of the 22-year career of soccer star Roberto Baggio, including depictions of his difficult debut as a player, his deep rifts with some of his coaches, his triumph over injuries and personal discovery of Buddism.

As a solar storm unfolds, causing power surges and blackouts, a storm of emotions rages within Regina, a spinster referred to as Fräulein, when a childlike sexagenarian checks into her hotel. What should be one night becomes a stormy coexistence all its own.

A university researcher is fired because of the cuts to university. To earn a living he decides to produce drugs recruiting his former colleagues, who despite their skills are living at the margins of society.

After accidentally coming into contact with radioactive waste, small-time crook Enzo Ceccotti gains superpowers. A misanthropic, introverted brute, he uses his new powers for personal gain until he meets Alessia, a mentally challenged girl who believes Enzo’s the hero from her favorite Japanese anime series, Steel Jeeg.

Margherita, a director in the middle of an existential crisis, has to deal with the inevitable and still unacceptable loss of her mother.

Womanizer father teaches clumsy son the decalogue of seduction: ten foolproof rules to make any woman fall in love. But the results will be not what expected.

Giulia is thirty years old and unmarried. She has a good job which allows her to travel and lead a luxurious life in Milan and Paris. She is convinced that she has everything she needs for happiness, but after meeting Renzo, a charming Apulian farmer, Giulia understands that she's missing the most important thing in her life - true love.

A group of high school Seniors juggle between old loves and new flings on the shores of a beautiful Italian town.

A man dedicated to religion and very faithful husband suddenly finds himself single. The new shop assistant in his shop will overwhelm his life.

Elena (Kasia Smutniak) and Antonio (Francesco Arca) seem not to be made for each other. They are too different in terms of character, life choices, worldview, and the way they relate to others. They are total opposites. However, they are overwhelmed by a mutual attraction they're trying hard to avoid; but to which they succumb to. This dramedy on relationships also gets a very credible performance from Paola Miraccione, who plays the tragic, albeit funny, character Egle.

Prime numbers are divisible only by one and themselves. These numbers are solitary and incomprehensible to others. Alice and Mattia are both "prime", both haunted by the tragedies that have marked them in childhood: a skiing accident for Alice which has caused a defect in her leg, and the loss of his twin sister for Matthew.

Pietramezzana, a remote village in the Lucan Dolomites, is likely to disappear. Its inhabitants, led by the volcanic Dominic do not give up and, believing that the opening of a factory may be the solution to all their troubles, they want to make sure that the project is successful ...

Maggie is an uptight, single mother and college writing teacher from New York City. In an effort to reconnect with her troubled teen daughter Summer, she decides to embark on a journey to a Tuscan village where she frequented in her younger days. Upon arrival, Maggie runs into Luca a handsome former lover who is still a bachelor and lives with his eighty-year-old mother Carmen. Summer (missing her “bad boy” boyfriend in NYC) and Carmen (secretly planning a wedding against Luca’s wishes to MARCELINO, her one true love in Rome) impulsively steal Luca’s car and race off to Rome. Maggie and Luca quickly pursue allowing the two mismatched couples to spend some time together and develop a new understanding of each other.

On a trip home to visit her father, Jenny is thrown into a world of mystery, horror and legend when she is called upon by 3000 year old spirits of the Neverlake to help return their lost artifacts and save the lives of missing children.

Years after declaring her eternal virginity and opting to live life as a man in the mountains of Albania, Hana looks to return to living as a woman as she settles into a new existence in modern-day Milan.

Set in 1950s Tuscany, Voice from the Stone is the haunting and suspenseful story of Verena, a solemn nurse drawn to aid a young boy who has fallen silent since the sudden passing of his mother.

A young man in a personal tailspin flees the US to Italy, where he sparks up a romance with a woman harboring a dark, primordial secret.