My Summer with the Shark
My Summer with the Shark is a 2023 Italian coming-of-age crime drama film directed by Davide Gentile, in his feature film directorial debut, from a –winning screenplay written by Valerio Cilio and Gianluca Leoncini. The plot follows two street kids who befriend a captive great white shark. Virginia Raffaele, Edoardo Pesce, and Claudio Santamaria star in supporting roles. A co-production of Goon Films, and Ideacinema with the State–owned Rai Cinema, it was Gabriele Mainetti's debut as a producer outside of films he had himself directed.
The film premiered at the Etna Comics on 1 June 2023, before being released on 8 June 2023 by Lucky Red. It was a box office bomb, grossing €249,609 on a budget of €3.5 million.
Plot
13-years-old Walter is off from school for the summer, still mourning the death of his father in a workplace accident. While idly wandering the, he comes across by a seemingly abandoned villa with a grand swimming pool. He dives in, only to narrowly survive the encounter with a great white shark. Once the fear has passed, Walter comes back to the villa the following days to watch the shark. There he meets an older boy, Carlo, who explains to him he's the caretaker of the villa and the place belongs to a gangster known as Corsaro, who uses it as a hideout. Corsaro keeps the shark there as a symbol of his power since it devoured an opponent of his years ago. Carlo allows Walter to come back whenever he wants to in exchange for bringing food for the shark. To do so, Walter begins to steal money at home and sells his father's possessions, much to his mother Rita's chagrin.Over the course of that summer, Carlo and Walter become friends. When Walter runs out of money, Carlo suggests robbing a butcher's shop: however, the plan backfires and Walter saves Carlo by threatening the butcher at gunpoint, then making him feed two carcasses to the shark. Impressed, Carlo introduces him to the other members of his gang. To allow Walter to join the gang, its leader Tecno has him deal drugs. After Rita finds out, Walter runs away from home, settling in the villa.
Carlo and Walter figure out the shark is suffering from captivity. While daydreaming about setting it free, they forget that to collect some money for Tecno, which ends up stolen. Although Walter takes the blame, Tecno beats Carlo to a pulp and kicks them both out of the gang: Carlo gets angry at Walter and leaves. The next day, Carlo takes the gang to the villa to see the shark, hoping to be reinstated. When the boys start mistreating the shark, Walter tries to stop them, but he gets beaten by Tecno. Just when he's about to die, Corsaro arrives, knocks Tecno down and throws everyone out of his villa. The gangster commends Walter for his bravery.
Walter returns to his mother and, helped by a repentant Carlo, manages to set the shark free into the sea.
Cast
- Tiziano Menichelli as Walter Di Santi
- Stefano Rosci as Carlo
- Virginia Raffaele as Rita, Walter's mother
- Edoardo Pesce as Corsaro
- Claudio Santamaria as Antonio, Walter's father
- Matteo Scattaretico as Tecno
- Roberto Fazioli as Biondo
- as ''Barracuda''