Drawing on the nostalgic appeal of films like Mediterraneo or Life Is Beautiful, popular satirist Pif follows up his hit The Mafia Only Kills in Summer (LIFF14) with this equally funny yet poignant prequel of sorts, At War for Love.
It’s the wartime in 1940s, New York City. Kind and goofy Italian waiter Arturo (Pif) annoys New Yorkers with his comic mangling of the word “water”. Arturo pines for Flora (Miriam Leone, An Almost Perfect Town LIFF17), but she’s betrothed to the son of a New York mafia boss. Arturo’s only option is to ask Flora’s father for her hand; however, he still lives in Sicily. Penniless but determined, Arturo takes a “free” passage to Italy by enlisting in the U.S. military at the start of the Allied invasion.
Mixing history with outrageous comedy and political satire, At War for Love plays as Forrest Gump by way of Mel Brooks—equal parts funny, charming, and irreverent. While Pif’s The Mafia Only Kills in the Summer taught us about the Sicilian mafia just before the famous Maxi Trial, here he explains how the mafia was able to obtain a stronghold in the first place.
