Ospiti

Gheni and Gherti, two young Albanian cousins with different and often conflicting characters, have both found work in a restaurant in Rome that also shows art and photos. With the aid of the restaurant owner they find accommodation in the house of Corrado, a generous young photographer who lives in Parioli, an affluent district of Rome. In front of Corrado’s house, Gherti meets Lino, the former concièrge of the house, whose story resembles that of the Albanians: he emigrated thirty years ago from Sardinia to Rome. Gherti has had enough of Gheni’s bossy behaviour and decides to quit hisjob. He roams aimlessly through Parioli, where he again bumps into Lino, who is looking for his wife. Her strange behaviour – she went completely crazy before disappearing without trace – lost him his job after 30 years. In the meantime, Gheni is doing better: he has become irreplaceable in the restaurant and becomes increasingly close friends with Corrado. Or will their relationship not survive longer than a couple of hot weeks in August?Matteo Garrone: ‘After my first film, I felt like making a second, but I had two or three stories in mind and couldn’t choose, so I put them together. The characters live against the background of a big-city fresco in which they can only say a few words.’The maker based his characters on people from his own surroundings.