Ascanio Petrini
Italy, Mexico | 2019 | 70 min
Swiss Premiere
Languages : English, Spanish, Italian
Subtitles : English, French
Welcome to the adventure(s) of Pasquale Donatone, an Italian immigrant in the USA, better known to his clientele as Tony Driver. A specialist in illicit trades, he smuggles people between the US and Mexico. One day he’s caught red-handed and has to make a tough choice: do time in the US or be deported back to Italy. A film like Wim Wenders having a blast with Dino Risi.
Pasquale Donatone left Italy as a child for the United States. He grew up in the Land of the Free, married, had children and divorced. He got tangled up in some shady business and decided to move South, just to stay out of trouble. But out of trouble he could not stay. Drugs come into play and in order to pay off serious debts he gets involved in another lucrative yet dangerous illegal business: smuggling visaless Mexican citizens over the American border. He is good at it and becomes known to his clientele as Tony Driver. One fateful day he gets caught red-handed. And it is also the very same day when he discovers that he does not hold American citizenship. Therefore, he must face a tough choice: go to prison in the US—for a very long time—or be deported back to Italy, a country he does not know and whose language he does not speak. Exiled in Italy he plots to make it back to the US. Just as any other illegal immigrant. Directed by Ascanio Petrini, Tony Driver is a modern-day Western that could have been directed by Wim Wenders while hanging out with the master of Italian comedy Dino Risi. A truly unique film.
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