Ciao, Bambino by edgardo Pistone

Ciao, Bambino (2024) marks the feature film debut of director and screenwriter Edgardo Pistone, following his three acclaimed short films: Per un’ora d’amore (2014), Il viaggio premio (2016), and Le mosche (2020), the latter of which won the top prize at the 35th International Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival.

The film centers on 19-year-old Attilio, who is tasked with settling his father’s debts to a notorious figure in their Neapolitan neighborhood. In his quest to gather the money, he becomes a bodyguard for a pimp's prostitute and unexpectedly falls for Anastasia, a young woman from an unspecified Eastern European country. Although the premise might suggest a familiar story steeped in gritty realism, Ciao, Bambino intentionally avoids traditional portrayals of gang life. Instead, Pistone creates a narrative that balances realism with a dreamlike quality, avoiding specific temporal or geographic markers. The film places its story in an undefined, timeless space, allowing even difficult situations to achieve a sense of normalcy.

The opening scene begins underwater, a motif that recurs as a group of friends dives into the sea. Filmed in black and white, the cinematography blends realism with a fable-like quality, capturing moments of carefree joy—sunbathing on rocks, dazzled by sunlight, and enjoying summer leisure. While Attilio’s choice to take responsibility for his father’s debts might suggest a turn toward tragedy or violence, the film defies expectations. It highlights moments of relief and tenderness, from Attilio assisting Anastasia to the friends’ joyful gatherings over meals or pool table games.

Visually, the film is a poetic blend of tracking shots, pans, close-ups, long-distance frames, and slow motion, combined with minimal mise-en-scène and dynamic contrasts of light and shadow. The sound design, merging ambient textures with carefully chosen diegetic and extra-diegetic music, grounds each scene in its thematic essence.

Having won the Best First Feature Award at the 19th Rome Film Fest/Festa del Cinema di Roma and the Best Director Special Jury Prize at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (First Feature Competition), Ciao, Bambino makes its UK premiere at the Institute of Italian Culture. It promises to be one of the year's most sophisticated art-house screenings nationwide.