Api

A group of teenagers from Aosta Valley in northern Italy spend their summer on their Apecars — afternoons and evenings filled with trap music, drifting, dodging the police, and partying with friends. School is about to start again, and the mountains loom high around them.

Saba, Gallo, Federico, and Jill are 15 years old, they just finished school, and spend the month of August cruising around in their modified Apecars (with a Piaggio 50 cc engine). In Pollein, in the province of Aosta, the days pass cyclically between attempts to do wheelies on their Apecars, approximate engine repairs, and speakers pumping trap music at full volume.

Contrasting with the world of Apecars is the world of motorcycles, represented by Rudy, an arrogant eighteen-year-old determined to show everyone he's number one. They all meet at the Tower, a former abandoned parking lot of the Cogne steelworks. While Rudy shows off by doing wheelies, Saba and his gang are always on the flatbeds of their Apecars, eating pizza or waiting for nightfall in their sleeping bags, illuminated by LED lights.

The Apecar tribe moves together through the valleys of Valle D'Aosta, surrounded by towering mountains that are almost unnoticed by the teenagers, who also ignore the few girls who follow them on their adventures. From dinners at McDonald's to nights at the local disco, from walks by the river to school exams, in the end, the topic of their conversations is always the same: the Apecar.

Written and Directed by: Luca Ciriello

Sound: Luis Murrighile

Editing: Simona Infante, Luca Ciriello

Colour Grading: Simona Infante

Sound Mix: Rosalia Cecere

Produced by: Lunia Film and L’Eubage

Creative Producer: Luciano Barisone

Executive Producer: Luca Bich

With the Contribution of: Fondo per il sostegno alla produzione audiovisiva della Fondazione Film Commission Vallée d’Aoste

Distribution: Sayonara Film

Info: Italy, 2023, 20 min., colour, 4K

Locandina Film Api - Luca Ciriello
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