The best days of Professor Bruno Beltrame (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) are behind him. He makes his living as a private tutor and writing biographies for B-list personalities. One day the mother of one of his uninterested students Luca (Filippo Scicchitano) shows up and tells him that Luca is his son. As if this revelation wasn’t enough – she’s about to leave for a six-month stint in Africa as a development worker and asks him to look after Luca while she is away. Bruno discovers that Luca is in danger of flunking out school and makes it his mission to help him get through the school year during their time together. But Luca has other plans and gets himself into big trouble.
Director Francesco Bruni captures the unexpected cohabitation of these two characters, who couldn’t be more different, in wonderfully composed images. Against the background of the normally glamorous Italian capital, the film veteran Fabrizio Bentivoglio and the newcomer Filippo Scicchitano function as a team against their better judgement. The fun-loving Luca is able to teach his melancholic father that sometimes life shouldn’t be so serious. “Scialla” is Roman slang for “take it easy” or “chill” and this is the underlying message of this comedy, which is delivered in highly amusing images and dialogue. It is with good reason that Bruni won the “David di Donatello” prize for best first-time director at the Venice Film Festival.

David Herger