‘Fireworks’ is a Story of Young Love Crushed by Intolerance

metroweekly.com:

Fireworks. The boys spark a bond from the moment their mopeds collide on a forked road winding through the rocky countryside.Mop-haired 16-year-old Nino (Gabriele Pizzurro) is out joyriding on the scooter his parents just bought him, while slightly older Gianni (Samuele Segreto) is racing to escape two of the tormentors who refuse to let him be.Set during the summer of 1982, with the entire country entranced by the Italian national football team’s progress through the World Cup, the film marvelously conveys a sense of time and place.Picture it: small-town Sicily before Italy’s gay rights movement had truly crystallized.

Everything appears to be baking in the sun — the brush-covered coastline, the olive trees, the men in their tight tanks and jeans.And in his small town, shy garage mechanic Gianni has been branded a “certified f****t” by macho village idiots with nothing better to do than loll about all day in front of the café bar on the corner, when they’re not watching the World Cup or attacking Gianni.Stoically, he walks alone in his torment, save for the caring attention of his mother (Simona Malato).

Although she’s more concerned about keeping her man Franco (Enrico Roccaforte) happy, than shielding her son from being beaten up and chased through the streets.So Gianni finds much-needed refuge in his friendship with Nino, a gregarious, more or less well-adjusted kid who works helping his dad (Antonio De Matteo) produce fireworks at fairs around the region.