It will debut from May 15 on Rai 1 Living is not child’s playthe new RAI Fiction directed by Roland Ravello with Stephen Fresi, Nicole Grimaudo and with the participation of Claudio Bisio. A Rai Fiction – PICOMEDIA co-production.

Where to see Living is not child’s play

Living is not child’s play will be aired in three 100′ evenings premiered on Rai 1 on Monday 15 May at 21.25, Monday 22 May at 21.25 and Tuesday 23 May at 21.25. Living is not child’s play streaming dto May 12 in preview on RaiPlay.

The plot of the fiction Living is not child’s play

The 18-year-old Lele, a good boy of humble origins, attends high school with the children of the Bolognese elite and is in love with Serena, a beautiful, intelligent and perfect school queen. Invited one evening to a disco by Serena and her group of friends, Lele takes a pill of MDMA to impress her. Sucked into the world of discos and drugs, Lele soon runs out of money and, in order to continue seeing Serena, she finds herself buying pills in his neighborhood and selling them in the disco at double the price. One evening he sells a pill to his friend Mirco, who is found dead the next day because of the drug. For Lele, corroded by guilt because he is convinced that he is Mirco’s murderer, an ordeal begins that upsets the relationship with Pigi, his best friend, with Serena and with her parents. Even the rest of the group, bound by a pact of silence aimed at keeping the drug use secret, experiences a profound crisis that leads each member to come to terms with the truth and with their own inner ghosts. After many vicissitudes, pains and discoveries, Lele decides to free herself from the weight of lies and guilt. So he confesses everything first to his father and then to the policeman Saguatti. His confession will unleash a sort of “epidemic of truth” that leads all the main characters to come to terms with their secrets.

SCREENWRITER’S NOTE

History has the shape of a pebble that rolls and becomes an avalanche. A gesture perceived as innocent by many teenagers – passing a pill to a friend – breaks a young life and another remains crushed under the weight of guilt. The drama spreads to families, friends and the whole small world around, revealing the unity of unease that in some way infects many, among young people but also among adults. A major theme is that of responsibility, the young Lele has done a horrible thing but no one knows it, so he is faced with an adult choice, with great ethical implications: is it better to pay for one’s faults or try to hide them?

It is the beginning of a ruthless game, in which Lele and her group of friends find themselves caught between forces too big for them: the investigations of an ambiguous policeman, the threats of a criminal gang, the anxieties of families, the torments of consciousness. From the clash of these forces comes a game of moves and countermoves, sometimes messed up by the unpredictable wind of adolescence, which will end up letting out the secrets and contradictions of all the characters, not just the boys. The story involves parents from the outset who, under the armor of adults, often reveal frailties not too different from those of their children. The common thread is the very topical theme of recreational drugs, the one now perceived as “almost normal”. But the real theme is that of escaping from oneself and one’s emotions, history will show that drugs are only one means but there are many others and anyone can find theirs.

Escape, guilt, responsibility, secrets: these are the key terms of a coming-of-age story that from young people extends to adults, with the same question hanging over everyone. Can you really escape from yourself? Or to grow up, at any age, is it necessary to accept the truth of one’s actions and emotions? The series has twists and turns, but always inspired by the truth of everyday life, in the hope that many children and parents can recognize each other. Maybe – dreaming is not forbidden – even to see her together. The tone is that of a dramatic journey through pain and guilt, which however often crosses the levity of adolescence and the natural comedy of life, with an ending open to hope: if you don’t run away from who you are, if you stay there and face what you have to, you can do. Fabio Boniface

The clips

Early evening synopsis

Living is not child’s play – EPISODE 1

Lele is 17 years old, he’s a good boy, he lives in Bologna in the suburbs but goes to a high school in the center with the children of the rich. The craftsman father has just been cheated by an unscrupulous entrepreneur and Lele’s pocket money is low. But he is in love with Serena, who escapes him for a secret problem of hers, to go out with her Lele experiments with drugs and starts selling pasta a week because he doesn’t have the money for the evenings. But one evening he gives a “pasta” to his friend Mirco who is found dead.

Living is not child’s play – EPISODE 2

Lele feels like a murderer, he would like to confess but his best friend Pigi, son of a criminal lawyer, convinces him not to. The torments of his conscience begin, combined with more concrete dangers: an ambiguous policeman suspects him and wants to make him confess, the drug dealers from whom he bought the pill threaten to kill him if he speaks. And two parents already grappling with a thousand troubles see their son disappear in a tunnel of anguish of which nothing is known.

Second evening synopsis

Living is not child’s play – EPISODE 3

The pressure of the police and drug dealers who try to pull him in opposite directions increases on Lele. Remorse also grows because the dead boy’s mother turns to him to find out who her son really was. Meanwhile, the various parents, after the tragedy, want to know if their children also take drugs. The boys deny it and there is discussion in every house, especially in Lele’s, where the father reacted to the scam by doing something silly that aggravates his situation and infuriates his wife.

Living is not child’s play – EPISODE 4

An anonymous man warns the families that all the boys in the group were taking drugs on Saturdays: the bomb explodes in the houses, starting to reveal the secret wounds of some parents and causing the crisis to explode among Lele’s. Lele rekindles relations with Serena but the policeman has made a discovery about him and forces him to name the neighborhood gang from whom she buys. But the criminals sense him and kidnap him: Lele has a few minutes to convince them that he is not talking to the police.

Synopsis third evening

Living is not child’s play – EPISODE 5

The game of moves and countermoves of the various forces in the field (children, parents, school, police, criminals), generates a sort of “epidemic of truth” that blows masks and secrets come out, both among children and adults. Lele, out of love for Serena, decides to face her responsibilities and discovers the purpose of the ambiguous policeman who is investigating him. But love for Serena has a new, unpredictable obstacle, and the threat of criminals becomes a real threat of death.

Living is not child’s play – EPISODE 6

The different characters are forced to settle suspended accounts with others and with themselves, facing painful but necessary transformation or continuing to flee. However, the ending opens up to hope, the story shows that growing up is difficult for everyone, not just for young people: but if you don’t run away from who you are, if you stay there and face what you have to do, you can do it.

PERSONAGES

The group of boys

• Lele (Riccardo De Rinaldis Santorelli): He is of humble origins, studious, sporty, just a little ramshackle from adolescence. He loves the unattainable Serena and, as often happens at his age, he throws himself into things without thinking too much about the consequences.
• Serena (Matilde Benedusi): Beautiful, funny, intelligent, empathetic, she is the perfect girl but hides a dark evil that only she knows.
• Pigi (Pietro De Nova): He is Lele’s Sancho Panza, the faithful friend. Nerd and not very popular, in the face of hard trials he will reveal character and humanity. He will also need it in his house.
• Mirco (Tommaso Donadoni): It is the restless that alternates between extreme vitality and gloom. He escapes with transgression a fragility that he doesn’t know how to face, maybe not even see.
• Spinoza (Luca Geminiani): is the comedian of the class, jokes about everything and hates heavy talk. But laughter hide fears that weigh like boulders.
• Patti (Alessia Cosmo): She is Serena’s best friend: insecure, she doesn’t believe in her own worth and goes on the hunt for conquests to certify it. You will discover that there are different paths.
• Rust (Simone Baldasseroni): he is the school trapper, Lele’s rival in love. He’s the bad guy, or maybe just the one who wants to play the part. But he will find someone much meaner than him.

The adults

• Saguatti (Claudio Bisio): It is the crazed splinter of history. Free-range and popular policeman, with unorthodox methods and ambiguous purposes. He enters the scene as an enemy of Lele, ready to frame him by any means. But he will reveal unpredictable implications and wounds not too different from what he investigates. His right arm is Paternò (Antonio Perna)great humanity and not always responsive brain.
• Anna (Nicole Grimaudo) and Marco (Stefano Fresi) (Lele parents): Family from the suburbs struggling on the edge of the end of the month. Marco he is a plumber, they stole a year of his work by devastating the household accounts. Heartfelt but impulsive, in a midlife crisis, Marco feels outdated by the times and watches all the games. Anna, a former suburban star, is a bartender and loves reading. More sophisticated than her husband, she suffers a blackmail that could solve the economic problems at home, she too will face a tough choice. The story of his son Lele will cause the couple’s contradictions to explode. But the little one is also in the family Linda (Geneva Culini)who suffers from conflicts.
• Sonia (Lucia Mascino): Serena’s mother and successful woman: entrepreneur and mayoral candidate, a life of enlightened battles for equality. But as she bids to lead a city, she discovers she doesn’t know what goes on in her daughter’s room and heart.
• Claudius (Fausto Sciarappa): He’s Serena’s father, he left when she was little and then he got everything wrong that could be wrong. For his daughter it is the origin of all his evils, his ex-wife doesn’t want to see him. But even the wrong men love their children.
• The gang of villains: the delinquents of the neighborhood, who together with the policeman Saguatti hold Lele between two fires. The boss is Caminito (Francesco Mastrorilli)studies the Samurai and did his master’s degree in prison, he’s someone who knows how to hurt when needed. Brush (Samuele Brighi) it’s the armed wing, he likes to hurt, he eagerly awaits the order. Lace (Francis Morelli) he’s the boy in the shop, he was in middle school with Lele who once saved him from bullies, so maybe he’s on her side, or maybe not.
• Angela (Fabrizia Sacchi): She is Mirco’s mother, a lonely woman who has to face the most terrible drama. Even in the most extreme pain she manages to maintain dignity and somehow, with difficulty, perhaps even to grow.
• Renzo (Jerry Mastrodomenico): Pigi’s father, a prestigious lawyer with great moral rigor: he is the myth of the son but will crumble badly in the course of history.
• Renata (Carlotta Miti): Pigi’s mother, at work she has the infallible eye of a surgeon but at home she pretended not to see for too long. She will be able to stimulate her son to overcome the shock.
• Mother Patti (Francesca Castaldi): She had children when she wasn’t ready and made mistakes. It’s hard having to deal with a daughter who holds them against you with the ruthlessness of youth.
• Magnani (Stefano Pesce): Elegant builder. He cheated Lele’s father by pretending to be a failure and his designs on the family are not over.
• Prof Palmieri (Anna Redi): The Italian teacher that anyone would like to have, the one who has read all the books but, when she talks to you, she talks to your 17 years old, your fears, dreams, weaknesses.