Sicily, the mid-Eighties. A grown man’s hands pick lemons from a tree. Two children listen, spellbound, to the stories he tells while he cooks.
Warsaw, today. The children are grown up and own a celebrated Italian restaurant in Poland. “Dai Fratelli Tassi” — the Tassi Brothers, though in fact they are cousins — is an elegant place, a haunt for gourmets, politicians and artists. Giuseppe and Nicola have settled into Polish life over many years, most likely for reasons of the heart: they never learned the language, but they raised families and built a comfortable living. Giuseppe is outgoing, with a head for business and a weakness for women; Nicola is melancholy, with a deep passion for cooking inherited from the man with the lemons, their eccentric uncle Annibale.
For some time business has not been what it was: other Italian restaurants have opened, newer and cheaper. To weather the crisis the two take the advice of food writer Luigi Cremona: go back to Italy and sign up a few starred chefs, the kind known from television. Sharing a passion for big motorcycles, they set off on an adventurous journey on two wheels that will take them from Warsaw the length of Italy.
But while they are chasing the busy chefs, word reaches them that old uncle Annibale has died. He has left them a small inheritance: a lemon tree, which the two, against all common sense, carry back with them to Warsaw. What if that little tree were the answer to their problems?
Credits
- Directed ByBruno Colella
- Story And ScreenplayBruno Colella, in collaboration with Mirco Garrone and with the friendly contribution of Krzysztof Zanussi
- StarringNinni Bruschetta, Roberto De Francesco, Marieta Żukowska, Anna Cieślak, with Denise Tantucci
- WithAntonella Attili, Nino Frassica, Peppe Lanzetta, Pietra Montecorvino, Totò Onnis, Mariano Rigillo, Lina Sastri, Giulio Scarpati
- As ThemselvesGianfranco Vissani, Gino Sorbillo, Filippo La Mantia, Dario Cecchini, Luigi Cremona, Federico Del Monte, Lorenza Vitali
- CinematographyGianni Cigna
- EditingMichelangelo Garrone
- Original MusicEugenio Bennato
- Produced ByDario Formisano
- Executive ProducerStefano Incerti
- ProductionEskimo, Bronx Film, Minerva Pictures Group, PFA Films, An.tra.cine
- DistributionRS Productions
- International SalesMinerva Pictures Group
- Release27 August 2026
- Running Time86′
- Festival72nd Taormina Film Festival, out of competition