EST - Last Minute Dictatorship(HKSIFF 2021)

1989. A few weeks before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Pago, Rice and Bibi, three twenty-five-year-old guys, leave the calm city of Cesena looking for adventure: a ten-day-long holiday in Eastern Europe, in those places where the Soviet regime is still alive. As they get to Budapest, they meet Emil, a Romanian fleeing from the dictatorship in his country. The man is worried for his family that still lives in Romania, so he asks the three Italians for help. It’s an easy task: take a suitcase to his wife and daughter. Out of pity and looking for a thrill, the three friends head to Bucharest, in the heart of Ceausescu’s dictatorship. Without knowing what is waiting for them, on a journey beyond their imagination, Pago, Rice and Bibi find themselves in a country under a dictatorial regime, involved in surreal situations and surrounded by unlikely characters that seriously put their lives at risk. Among many plot twists, the three protagonists understand the true worth of the things that we take for granted every day. They strengthen their friendship and join forces to accomplish the most important mission in their lives.