MÒ VI MENTO - LIRA DI ACHILLE

How do you get out of a recession? If you’re a government, with policies that kill the taxpayer; if you’re a taxpayer, by killing someone richer than you to inherit. Too cruel? Go explain it to the group we're about to introduce.

Achille Alfresco (a fitting name!) is a politician aspiring to be the next Prime Minister. Even the name of his party is a whole program: "Mò Vi Mento", for coherence; "Lira di Achille", without an apostrophe, to exit the euro and bring back the lira in Italy. Achille is trying to marry the wealthy Elena Guarracino, heir to a condom multinational, but Elena is still in love with the naive and cultured Massimo Della Bozza who, as his name suggests, is an aspiring writer but in real life is relegated to being an under-the-table assistant for the petty Achille, who desperately wants to keep him by promising a bright future as the next Minister of Culture.

To tangle this love triangle further, other quirky characters join in, such as Lucia, blind as a bat, the not-so-promising killer Carlo Spampanato, a bungler who can’t even kill time, the bold Giuliana, all facelift, Cinzia, young and beautiful but as ignorant as a brick, and the Quagliano family proudly wearing the tricolor. And then there are many Chinese who know Vesuvius better than Elena’s secretary, Asia, who finds shopping malls more interesting. It’s from China that a fierce Asian delegation comes storming in, ready to bankrupt everyone because the only faulty mini-condom from Elena's company ended up in Shanghai, causing an unwanted pregnancy for the Mayor’s secretary.

All these characters and their mix of plots, unconfessed loves, secrets, lies, and obvious stupidity, move against the backdrop of a corrupt and petty multicultural Italy, filled with sly individuals who’ll think of anything to get what they want. The drama escalates, becoming a farce, a theater of a triple chase: for power, money, and love, reaching tragicomic levels and unexpected situations, reminding us that politics always goes hand in hand with deception.