L’ora di punta

The civil servant Filippo Costa (Michele Lastella) literally starts at the bottom of the ladder with the tax police, but from the very first moment it is clear that he wants to climb the ladder whatever it costs. And that happens. It becomes apparent that even in the tax authorities there are ways of quickening the process. Once he is gripped by big money and the kick, there’s no way back.
Then Costa, rejected by his own girlfriend, meets the affluent Caterina (Fanny Ardant), a gallery owner with lots of connections who has no trouble falling for him. She brings him into contact with politicians and powerful businessmen. Costa soon leaves the tax authorities for more profitable building projects, where extortion and insider dealing are commonplace. He seems to have his game with two women and his rapidly growing wealth under control, until a few mistakes from the past catch up with him.
L’ora di punta forms at first sight a classically-shot drama, the story of a petty crook who manages to control his own reality for a long time. A worldly thriller about profit and loss. However below the surface is Italy with its pathological, large-scale corruption; a cradle filled with risks for both social climbers and weaklings. Costa’s story becomes illustrative and Vincenzo Marra is a social accuser.