Italy

One in an occasional series exploring the state of Hollywood films in global markets. In a departure from the trend in other countries, the top-grossing film on the Italian charts in 2020 is Tolo Tolo, a comedy about migration directed by and starring Luca Medici, aka Checco Zalone, the country’s most popular comedian, who regularly commands the top of the charts with his broad farces.

Two twin sisters - excellent singers – never leave each other’s side. Nor could they, since they are Siamese twins, attached at the hip.

They Call Me Jeeg (Lo Chiamavano Jeeg Robot in the original Italian), the first feature length film by Gabriele Mainetti (known for animation shorts), is a singular object, a blend of superhero fantsy and gritty Neorealism in the mold of De Sica or Rossellini. You could venture to call it Bicycle Thieves with superpowers.

The Ploy (La Macchinazione) by Italian director David Grieco, recounts the last days of director/poet/writer Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was assassinated on the outskirts of Rome on a November night in 1975. His death is still shrouded in mystery, and the film's authors seems to believe in a conspiracy theory: Pasolini was not savagely murdered by just one person during a sexual encounter, but rather was the victim of a well plotted conspiracy.