A Quiet Life (Claudio Cupellini, 2010)

A man is faced with a living reminder of his checkered past in this drama from director Claudio Cupellini. Rosario (Toni Servillo) is an Italian expatriate who has settled in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he operates a hotel and restaurant alongside his wife Renate (Juliane Koehler). Rosario and Renate lead a quiet life and that seems to be just the way they like it, but things change when two suspicious-looking men, Diego (Marco D'Amore) and Edoardo (Francesco Di Leva), arrive and Rosario gives them a room.


Diego keeps an emotional distance from Rosario, but the two men know each other well -- Diego is actually Rosario's son, and the younger man carries with him a reminder of why his father exiled himself. Rosario was a powerful man in organized crime, a feared enforcer who killed many men, and Diego and Edoardo are still part of the family business. When criminal factions go to war over a lucrative rubbish collection contract, Rosario is drawn back into active duty, though Diego rebuffs his father's attempts to patch up their dysfunctional relationship. Una Vita Tranquilla (aka A Quiet Life) was an official selection at the 2010 Rome Film Festival, where Francesco Di Leva received the L.A.R.A. Award for best supporting performance by an Italian actor. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi