"Cover Boy: The Last Revolution" is a 2007 Italian film that criticizes consumerism and the importance of social status. The story revolves around the friendship between a Romanian illegal immigrant and an Italian janitor in Rome
Cover boy: L’ultima rivoluzione (2007)
I remember the television reports from Romania in 1989 when the then-thought last dictator in Europe, Nicolae Ceausescu, was overthrown. Hope for a better tomorrow returned to the Romanian people. I was extremely happy for these events. I could no longer bear stories of people burning furniture to survive the cold. Romania was a neighboring country, after all. Unfortunately, I did not realize that an even greater and worse tragedy was awaiting my country.
After those years, I met many Romanians who came here to earn some money and support their families. Today, it is a country of the European Union, with slightly lower living standards than in Montenegro.
In the ’90s, like most of my fellow countrymen, I faced Balkan madness that I simply do not want to talk about. And this blog is not a place for that.
In this film, we follow the fate of Ioan, a Romanian who comes to Italy from post-communist Romania, alone, lost, and without prospects. Wandering the streets of Rome, like the last homeless person, he meets poor Italian Michele, who works as a cleaner, has an uncertain job, and barely pays rent with some half-crazy, washed-up actress. A typical socialist realist story, isn’t it?
However, the point is that this film has united rich Western and poor Eastern Europe in a barely noticeable way. Poor Michele tells the Romanian at one point: In Italy, if you don’t have the support of parents and friends, you become a stranger in your own country. Michele, who has reached his 40s without work qualifications, does not differ in his way of life from the multitude of illegal immigrants who clean the streets of big cities. They develop an unusual friendship in poverty.
I will not go on, ideals deeply engraved in Ion’s family upbringing have not been disrupted by current consumer mentality. At least not in this movie. And in reality?
Once in Budapest, in the famous “GELERT” bath, I met a Romanian. He looked like a macho type from the covers of fashion magazines. Handsome, beautiful, masculine behavior and appearance, he stood out from the crowd of lost homosexuals in the bath. I don’t even know how, but we got to know each other in a relaxed conversation. I introduced myself and we started talking, me about the Balkans, him about Romania. We had been chatting for almost two hours when the Romanian suddenly turned to look at an old, half-naked gay man. I was amazed at what was happening. They shook hands, kissed, touched each other under the water in the pool… I naively interpreted it as some fetish for old people. There are also those who have such fetishes, right? I returned to my group and looked around for someone interesting.
When leaving Gelert, I saw the Romanian and greeted him. He asked me how long I was staying in Budapest and where I was staying. I answered him cautiously, and he told me he would like to see me. I politely replied that we would meet, and that he could come with his friend to the gay bar Action. He smiled and said: “He is not my friend, he is my client.” I was stunned and told him that I had not thought he was doing it for money. He replied briefly that one had to live from something and that he was aware that he was doing well…
“Review of ‘Cover Boy: The Last Revolution’: A Missed Opportunity to Explore Capitalism and Friendship”
“Cover Boy: L’ultima rivoluzione” is a 2007 Italian film directed by Carmine Amoroso. The film tells the story of Ioan, a young Romanian immigrant who arrives in Italy without prospects and is taken in by Michele, a hard-luck Italian janitor. As Ioan struggles to find work as an illegal immigrant, Michele tries to help him while dealing with his own struggles and unrequited feelings for Ioan.
“Cover Boy: L’ultima rivoluzione” touches on themes of consumerism, status, and marginalization. The opening sequence features a montage of the Cold War and the fall of Ceausescu, which sets the stage for Ioan’s story as an illegal immigrant. The friendship between Ioan and Michele is the heart of the film, and the characters are well-developed and complex. However, the film’s plot weakens in the second half with the introduction of a subplot involving the fashion world.
The film received mixed reviews, with critics praising the performances and the film’s social commentary but criticizing the plot’s unevenness and unnecessary subplots. “Cover Boy: L’ultima rivoluzione” may appeal to fans of Italian cinema and those interested in stories about immigration and marginalization.
Cover boy: L’ultima rivoluzione (2007) – Gay film, Drama, 93 min, Italy, directed by Carmine Amoroso with Eduard Gabia, Luca Lionello, Chiara Caselli, Francesco Dominedò, Gabriel Spahiu, Luciana Littizzetto
