| I Am the End of the World | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Gennaro Nunziante |
| Screenplay by | Gennaro Nunziante Angelo Duro |
| Starring | Angelo Duro |
| Cinematography | Massimiliano Kuveiller |
| Edited by | Pietro Morana |
| Distributed by | Vision Distribution |
Release date |
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| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
I Am the End of the World (Italian: Io sono la fine del mondo) is a 2025 Italian black comedy film directed by Gennaro Nunziante and starring Angelo Duro.
In Rome, Angelo, a vehicle for hire driver specialized in taking drunk teenagers home, is contacted by his sister Anna who lives in Palermo, who asks him to take care of their elderly parents, Franco and Rita.
Angelo and his parents have had no relationship for years, but he decides to accept the job offered to him by his sister, even though he initially refused it, because he was forced to wait a month for the repair of his car, which was necessary for his work. In the previous months, his parents had begun to regularly see a psychologist, recommended to them by their doctor in the hope of curing the first signs of depression that were beginning to appear in the two. It was the psychologist who advised his daughter Anna to contact her brother, both to allow her to go on vacation and to try to reconnect Angelo with his parents.
In the meantime, Angelo arrives in Palermo and Anna leaves, leaving her parents in the hands of her brother, who immediately shows himself hostile towards them. Despite this, he continues to accompany them to the doctor and the psychologist, but at the same time he tries to make the two's lives miserable in order to take revenge for all the wrongs suffered by them during his childhood.
During his stay, he deprives his father of the possibility of eating his favorite foods and drinking his beloved wine, even though the doctor had found him in excellent physical health and able to consume any type of food; he forces his mother, suffering from osteoporosis, to walk up the stairs of their building instead of using the elevator.
In the following days, Angelo meets the substitute of his parents' family doctor, Dr. Marta Pedrotta. The woman seems interested in Angelo because she believes he is sensitive and caring towards his parents, given that he often asks if they could have a stroke, heart attack or ischemia at any moment, diseases that Angelo actually hopes his parents will get in an attempt to get rid of them. He knows the doctor's son, Gabriele, and one evening, during a shift at the hospital, Marta asks Angelo to take him home and he not only takes him to eat foods forbidden to him by his parents because he is obese, but also allows him to drive his mother's car.
Meanwhile Anna and her husband Nando are continuing their vacation on a sailing boat with friends, but Anna is unable to contact her parents in any way: Angelo has tampered with his parents' phones. In the long run, Anna seems to almost go crazy and her friends begin to get fed up with her, including her husband Nando, who eventually leaves her and makes her leave the boat on a motorboat.
Meanwhile, Franco and Rita are still willing to reconnect with their son, and the mother suggests to her husband that they leave their house in Palermo to Angelo, so that he can benefit from it after their death. Angelo actually puts the house up for sale as soon as he inherits it, almost giving his parents a heart attack when they find it out.
In September Angelo returns to Rome, while Anna returns to Palermo and takes her parents to her house since Angelo has sold their house. In the meantime, Angelo decides to quit his job as a driver and is summoned to court, because Dr. Pedrotta's ex-husband has reported her for having entrusted their son to Angelo, guilty of having made him drive the car. The hearing ends quickly and Angelo is acquitted of all charges. As he leaves the courthouse he meets his sister Anna with her son Carlo, a Carabinieri officer, who reveals to him that Franco and Rita were taken by Anna to a nursing home. Angelo then decides to pick up his parents from the nursing home and load them into his new camper to take them to Switzerland; the two parents are initially enthusiastic, but shortly after they learn with horror the reason for the trip: euthanasia is legal in Switzerland.
The film marked the screenwriting and leading role debut for Angelo Duro. [1] It was shot in Palermo and Rome between June and July 2024. [2] It was produced by Indiana Production and Vision Distribution, in collaboration with Sky. [1]
The film was released in Italian cinemas by Vision Distribution on 9 January 2025. [1]
In spite of its lack of press and television marketing, [1] [3] the film was a commercial success, topping the Italian box office for two weeks, [4] grossing over 9 million euros, [5] with over 1.2 million admissions. [6]
The film was met with mostly negative reviews from film critics, who criticized its narrative structure, characterization, and excessive use of political incorrectness. [7]
