Playing on the sociological trendy element that Italy is in a deep crisis, the movie shows us how the two friends move out of Palermo to go back to their small birth town of Monteforte, where their aging relatives are still living. More importantly, the are still receiving a comfortable pension that most of them don’t use fully in their provincial and remote lifestyles. Seeing this, and with his smart clown mind, Salvo quickly realizes that in these times of shortage, elders can be a quick, reliable, and opulent source of income, the new “oil”, so to speak. Therefore, he convinces his best friend to setup a makeshift retirement home in their apartments, where everyone will live happily and they can both cash the pension cheques. The plan sounds like a good one and the town’s younger inhabitants soon start fighting for the privilege of taking care of their elders. When the elders start passing away one after the other, a fierce competition arises between the various scavengers… all this while Valentino is trying to conquer the woman of his dreams.

Filled with Italian hand language, non-stop fast talking, belittling jokes and Abbot and Costello type slapstick, the film style is just too much for anyone who does not like 12 year old humour. That being said, its very enjoyable if you like the beautiful landscapes of Sicily, enjoy Looney Tunes cartoons, or just like Ficarra & Picone’s style.

Zefred is an award winning French/Canadian filmmaker, film lover and journalist whose short films have been screened at multiple festivals around the world. He writes regularly for the prestigious French Magazine L’Écran Fantastique and the Torontonian French Newspaper L’Express de Toronto.